Frenemy

While on the topic of war, it was interesting to see this piece of news coming over the weekend: Cheney and Bush warn Pakistan to Act on Terror. It's interesting in many ways: (a) The fact that India has been complaining of all the terror cells and training camps that are inside PoK and US just kept on supporting Pakistan unconditionally while asking India for evidence. (b) The critics of Muzarraf kept pointing him to past sudden US support and friendships and how it wanes when their interest in the region subsides. (c) How the Afghan government kept insisting that it was Pakistan which was aiding Taliban and harboring them. Here's a quote from the article that's worth repeating:

The decision to send Mr. Cheney secretly to Pakistan came after the White House concluded that General Musharraf is failing to live up to commitments he made to Mr. Bush during a visit here in September. General Musharraf insisted then, both in private and public, that a peace deal he struck with tribal leaders in one of the country’s most lawless border areas would not diminish the hunt for the leaders of Al Qaeda and the Taliban.

Now that there's a growing opposition to the Iraq war in the US and the fact that democrats have taken control of the Congress, White House is looking for an exit strategy and in that unfortunately, Pakistan doesn't feature.

But wait, maybe they shouldn't rush to dump Pakistan. There seems to be another war in the planning and who knows they may need refueling bases in Pakistan for that war.

P.S: And the title of the post is a word that means both a friend and an enemy - a word that I learnt from who else.