How Obama got bin Laden and lost Pakistan

The New York Times reports:

China has agreed to immediately provide 50 JF-17 fighter jets to Pakistan, a major outcome of a visit by Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani to Beijing this week, Pakistani officials said Thursday.

China and Pakistan have jointly produced the JF-17 aircraft, but the new planes would be equipped with more sophisticated avionics, the officials said. The latest jet fighters would be paid for by China, they said.

The announcement came as Pakistan’s already tense relations with the United States soured further after the killing of Osama bin Laden deep inside Pakistan on May 2.

Last week, Pakistan’s spy chief denounced the United States in a rare briefing before Parliament in which he condemned the American raid for breaching Pakistan’s sovereignty. Parliament, in turn, called for the government to revisit relations with the United States.

Mr. Gilani’s visit to Beijing served as a pointed reminder of Pakistani suggestions that the government might seek to recalibrate relations with the United States, using China to offset what many here view as an overdependence on Washington.

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3 thoughts on “How Obama got bin Laden and lost Pakistan”

  1. Colm O' Toole

    Apparently the US isn’t to pleased that China is now Pakistans “best friend”.

    Pakistan’s efforts to showcase its close ties with China are causing consternation in the U.S.

    During a hearing of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Tuesday, Republican Sen. Jim Risch of Idaho expressed frustration at Mr. Gilani’s statement that China was Pakistan’s “best friend” despite billions of dollars of U.S. aid over the last decade.

    “It just—it just doesn’t make sense….Because, frankly, I’m—I’m getting tired of it, and I think Americans are getting tired of it as far as shoveling money in there [to] people who just flat don’t like us,” he said, according to a transcript.

    At a hearing of the House Foreign Affairs Committee last week, congressman Michael McCaul (R., Texas) raised particular concern about whether U.S. military aid had been diverted into the JF-17 program.

    Source: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704083904576333192239624926.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

  3. Christopher Hoare

    Bush strongarmed the Pakistanis into their facilitating his attempted take-over of Afghanistan by threatening to bomb them into the stone age if they didn’t cooperate. They were always a reluctant participant in the ruining of one of their foreign policy neccesities. The surprise is that it has taken so long for them to begin breaking loose.

    The reason is probably a combination of the deep pockets of American bribery and the caution of Beijing in showing their hand.

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