With drone attacks, CIA activities and a lack of progress in Afghanistan widening the rift between the United States and Pakistan, the delicate counterterrorism alliance forged between the two after Sept. 11 is coming under increasing scrutiny.
"It's a mistake to presume the U.S. and Pakistan were ever entirely on the same page," says Stephen Tankel a visiting scholar in the South Asia Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington.
Tankel, who spoke with Trend Lines this morning, explains that, initially, the U.S. was rather narrowly focused on targeting al-Qaida, and was careful not to push then-Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf "too far, too fast" when it came to going after other extremist groups, such as the Pakistan-based Islamist organization Laskhar-e-Taiba (LeT).