In carlotta gall's talk there is this interesting question by sarah chayes from carnegie endowment questioning why did all these perfidies not lead to a rethink in the relationship with pak. To this Gall replies that there has been a rethink, case in point being Potus has not visited pak, but what has not changed is the ISI-CIA relationship.
In reidel's talk he also makes the same point that we havent figured out a different way to deal with pak, we being the CIA.
To Rudradev's points on what aid achieves in pak I would make a small addition
Pak also gives the khans an opportunity to feel important, as being the only ppl who can seemingly do something with these pests. Case in point being the kargil affair which have given them the "we prevented global nukular war" medal. Not withstanding how the conditions came about in the first place. Reidel also felt (for badmash) that "I am responsible for his head still being attached to his shoulder." These are also the kind of things which are sort of ego maalish. This ego trip has been one of the greatest fallacies of unkil's higherups. And bakis have been great at ego maalish.
What is interesting is that the current relationship is not us-pak but isi-cia. Though the end results may be similar, this can lead to future divorce etc.
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