U.S.-Pakistan relations

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**U.S.-Pakistan relations relations**


United States	Pakistan

U.S.-Pakistan relations are the transatlantic relations between the United States of America and Pakistan. Pakistan has long been seen as an ally of the United States. However the relationship is an unusual one.

1 Partition of India from British Raj: 1947 - 1952
2 Ayub Khan Era: 1952 - 1969
3 Separation of Bangladesh: 1969 – 1972
4 Bhutto Era: 1972 – 1977
5 Zia Era: 1977 – 1988
6 Democratic governments: 1988-1998
7 Post 9/11: Role against the War on Terror
8 Pakistani hostility toward the United States
9 References
10 See also
11 External links

After its independence by partitioning of British India, Pakistan followed a pro-western policy. The Indian government followed a different pro-western policy stance, which leaned closer to the Soviet Union rather than the United States. Pakistan was seeking strong friends to counter its bigger neighbour India, which was strongly backed by the Soviet government.

Pakistan joined the US lead military alliances SEATO and CENTO. At the time

President Richard Nixon used Pakistan's relationship with China to start secret contacts with China which resulted with Henry Kissinger’s secret visit to China in July 1971 while visiting Pakistan. America supported Pakistan through the war and blamed India for its aggressive actions.

The Taliban are one of the mujahideen ("holy warriors") groups that formed during the war against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan during 1979 to 1989.

By mid-1980s, Osama Bin Laden moved to Afghanistan, where he established Maktab al-Khidimat to recruit Islamic soldiers from around the world who later formed the basis of an international network.^{[citation needed]}

After the attacks on 9/11 in the United States, Pakistan became a key ally on the war on terror along with the United States.

On November 6, 2001, US President George W. Bush declared his polity: "You are either with us or against us". President Musharraf later claimed that U.S. threatened to bomb Pakistan "back to the Stone Age" after the Sept. 11 attacks if Pakistan refused to help America with its war on terrorism.^[1]

Eric Margolis who had interviewed Musharraf, writes ^[2]:

Leaked cabinet documents from 10 Downing Street show three months before invading Iraq in 2003, President Bush told British PM Tony Blair that once he finished off Iraq, he planned to `go after’ Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. Pakistan was in America’s cross hairs.

Every time Pakistan got into trouble with Washington, it would suddenly discover `one of al-Qaida’s top commanders’ and deliver him to the Americans. So far, almost 700 have been sent, in each case for rewards of millions of dollars, as Musharraf has (perhaps unwisely) boasted.

Musharraf acknowledges the payments in his book:

"We've captured 689 and handed over 369 to the United States. We've earned bounties totaling millions of dollars"

Rachel Maddow, a political commentator who hosts a radio program on Air America Radio, said on October 18, 2007 that "Right now probably the most anti-American country on earth is Pakistan. Pakistan not only has a nuclear weapon but has demonstrated that they will proliferate that technology on the black market."^[3]