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Friend Or Foe? A Look At The Complex Relationship Between The U.S. & Pakistan

By J.D. ADAMIK Paltalk News Network
Before on can really address the above question, we must get an understanding of how the country arrived at it present situation.
Pakistan became radicalized under the rule of Zia Ul-Haq, an Army general who took power by coup in 1977, and ruled by Marshall Law most of the time until his death in an airplane crash in 1988. Zia was a fervent fanatical Sunni Islamist, who, with the aid of the Wahabbi sect of Saudi Arabia, over the years established over 40,000 Madrases, religious schools that inculcated its students, all young boys, with a visceral hatred of anything Christian, Jewish or Western. That hatred now is in full bloom throughout the country. It is not an exaggeration to say that close to 90 percent of all Pakistanis subscribe to it.
Pakistan is an impoverished country, has little natural resources, very little industry, and is, essentially, incapable of supporting itself.
The country profited immensely during the Afghan/Soviet war, skimming off substantial amounts of the $50 billion provided in cash by the U.S., Saudi Arabia and the UK to assist the insurgents fighting the Soviets after their invasion in 1978/79.
Zia was in power at that time. He agreed, and demanded, that Pakistan be the only and unaccountable source of that aid to the Mujahadeen and Northern Alliance, either through the BCCI bank for the cash, or though its Inter Service Agency or the military for weapons. It is now acknowledged that at least 50 percent of all money and material was retained by Pakistan. This huge windfall stabilized the economy, with enough left over to fund rogue atomic scientist, A. Q. Khan to, with the direct aid of China, develop their atomic bombs.,
Since 2001, Pakistan has received over $15 billion from the United States in direct economic aid and several billion more in military aid.