Military aid to Pakistan is aimed at cooperation in the war on terror.
Since 2001, Pakistan has launched offensives against Islamic militant havens. Pakistani intelligence has helped the US nab some top Al Qaeda leaders. Islamabad also risked popular discontent by allowing the US to base drones and more CIA operatives on its soil, concessions now being rolled back as the relationship sours.
Yet, the help dries up when it comes to targeting groups most active in fighting the US in Afghanistan. Insurgencies are hard to defeat when they have sanctuary across a border. Meanwhile, Pew finds just 11 percent of Pakistanis have a favorable view of the US, up one percentage point from 2002.
“In the past decade, we’ve seen $14 billion military aid come in, but has militancy changed? If anything, it has become more acute,” says Aasim Sajjad Akhtar, a political economy professor at Quaid-i-Azam University in Islamabad.
