Pakistan's Military Holds the Keys to a Thaw with the U.S.
This Opinion first appeared in the the National on June 15, 2012
Just when U.S.-Pakistan relations appear to have reached a new low, yet another event drives them lower still, further complicating chances of stabilising bilateral ties.
Over the last 18 months, the deterioration of relations has been punctuated by a series of incidents, most dramatically the May 2011 raid that killed Osama bin Laden and the U.S. air strike last November at Salala, in which 24 Pakistani solders died.
The state of Pakistan seems incapable of learning from its experiences in former East Pakistan (now Bangladesh), and seems therefore doomed to repeat history when it comes to addressing the grievances of Balochistan. Home to nearly ten million of the 180 million-strong population of the country (an estimate at best, since the last census was in 1998), the province has the smallest population in the country but the largest land area.
