re: Why do we continue to do business with Pakistan?

quote:

---

Pakistan is without question our worst ally

---

In some ways the Saudis are worse but there's reason to think the royal family would like to be more pro-West but their circumstances don't allow it.
The Pakistanis are allies only in official State Dept. speak. I certainly hope that the powers that be see them more clearly off the record. Its possible, even likely, that we could find potential allies among the western educated military class but the shortterm benefits of a coup have to be weighed against the eventual swingback of the pendulum. (Iran 1953-now.)

There's another "ally" that comes to mind that has fricked us constantly for 60 years, stolen our most dangerous secrets, sold our advanced weapons tech to the Chinese, even murdered our sailors, but many on this board would argue them as our greatest ally and a linchpin of our security and stability.