The history of Pakistan-US relations shows that since the signing of the 'Mutual Defence Assistance Agreement' on May 19, 1954 and the signing of 'Mutual Security: Defence Support Assistance Agreement" on January 11, 1955 Pakistan has not violated any provision of these Agreements and has been an honest ally of the US. The US on the other hand has time and again acted directly against Pakistan's interests.
1) In October 1955, the US let down Pakistan with respect to promised military aid. A reference telegram from the Consulate General at Lahore to the Department of State of October 4, 1955 quote: "Pouching dispatch on talk with General Ayub who says US let us down on military aid to Pakistan likely be exposed in Consembly with result various Mid-East countries will take 'I told you so' attitude on [or?] argument "You cant trust Americans"
Says his face now red re contentions he made to King Saudi Arabia who personally warned in Pindi in 1954 "Americans can't be trusted". Says he also "had certain knowledge" that Shah of Iran felt the same way and so he Ayub sent an emissary to convince Shah USA different from British." (refer page 444, Foreign Relations, 1955-1957, Volume VII)
2) In October 1962, the US sent George Ball (Under-Secretary of State) to Pakistan along with Duncan Sandys (Minister Commonwealth Relations, UK) and put pressure on President Ayub to stop the planned military action by Azad Kashmir Army to capture Akhnur thus cutting off land rout of Kashmir with India. (At that time India was being badly mauled in its war with China).
3) In 1965, the US placed an embargo on arms sales to Pakistan and chose not to provide Pakistan with military support as pledged in the 1959 Agreement of Co-operation.
4) In April 1979, the United States suspended all economic assistance to Pakistan over concerns about Pakistan's nuclear programme.
5) It may be noted that Military sales and economic aid was resumed in 1981 after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in December 1979. On October 1, 1990, the US again suspended all military sales and economic assistance by applying the Pressler Amendment. Furthermore it totally abandoned Afghanistan and even closed its Embassy in Kabul.
6) In May 1998, when India conducted successful nuclear tests, the US put pressure on Pakistan not to conduct nuclear tests and when Pakistan went ahead and carried out nuclear tests, the US imposed stringent economic sanctions on Pakistan.
After the attacks on the World Trade Center on 11th September 2001, the then President General Musharraf, in his commando bravado made verbal agreements with US and provided military bases, flight corridors, co-operation with the CIA to arrest and handover al Qaeda operatives, induction of US troops in Pakistan ostensibly for training, transport of provisions through Pakistan for US forces in Afghanistan etc. In fact, he should have let the Foreign Office to do the negotiations, which was then headed by Riaz Khokhar an experienced and able Foreign Secretary. Now Pakistan wants all these verbal agreements renegotiated into a written agreement but the US is reluctant to do this, and this is also a point of friction between the two countries.
The US has been fighting in Afghanistan since October 2001. There are over 130,000 US and allied troops in Afghanistan. This is no different from the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. The Red Army had about the same number of troops and after nine years threw in the towel and left Afghanistan in February 1989. The US and its allies are in the same situation but rather than accepting their failure they are blaming Pakistan. This is exactly what the US Army did after their failure in Vietnam and General Westmoorland blamed Laos and Cambodia for allowing their territory to be used by the Viet Cong. However, the difference is that at that time Richard Nixon was the President, Henry Kissinger was the Secretary of State and Richard Helms was the Director of CIA, all very powerful and intelligent civilians who saw the failure of the army and extracted US out of an unpopular Vietnam war which was in any case not serving the American interests.
Today, however, the situation is quite different. There is a President who is beset with a failing economy and elections are looming on his head, a visionless Secretary of State. General David Petraeus was made CIA director after his military failure as Commander of Isaf and US forces in Afghanistan. Furthermore, Leon Panetta has moved up from head of CIA (after the failure of CIA in Afghanistan) to the post of Secretary Defence. In order to cover up their dismal failure in Afghanistan - both militarily and politically - the Pentagon and CIA are now blaming Pakistan.
It is time that the US accepts the facts and faces the hard truth that their 10-year operation in Afghanistan is a total failure both politically and militarily. The nationalist Islamic Taliban are stronger than in 2001 and the Americans have not been able to win the hearts and minds of the Afghans. There attempt to split the Taliban through Rabbani ended in his assassination. Taliban have survived a full decade of American onslaught both militarily and politically and today they are stronger and far better organised than they were in 2001. They have the support of over 60 percent of the Afghans. The recent Taliban attacks on the Intercontinental Hotel and on the fortified US Embassy and the 22-hour firefight in the heart of Kabul were actually their message to the Americans to prove and demonstrate their presence and support in Kabul.
According to a survey conducted by Pew Research Center of the US, only 11 percent Pakistanis had a favourable view of the US. It is significant that this survey was conducted before the clandestine US raid on the Osama compound. The unpopularity of the US in Pakistan must have significantly increased since then.
The recent blunt threats to Pakistan by top American officials have to be taken most seriously by us. It would be disastrous to take them lightly and consider it an effort to just put pressure on us to take action against loyal Pakistani citizens in North Waziristan. The people of Pakistan are firmly behind their army. Every political party is united in its resolve to stand firmly against American dictates which are against our national interests.