Pakistan once again proves it cannot be trusted as an ally

Even though there hasn’t been official confirmation of news reports that Pakistan gave the Chinese access to a top-secret American helicopter, we are inclined to believe the Financial Times of Britain and other media outlets because the Pakistanis have shown themselves to be less than dependable friends of the United States.

But even if it is proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that Chinese military engineers took photographs and samples of the stealth helicopter that crashed in May during the U.S. special forces’ killing of Osama bin Laden, there’s not much the Obama administration can do by way of punishment. That’s because Pakistan is America’s leading ally in the war on global terrorism and is key to the destruction of the Taliban and al-Qaida that are determined to topple the democratically elected government of President Hamid Karzai in Afghanistan.

The Taliban Islamic extremists, who once governed Afghanistan, and the al-Qaida terrorists, who were under the direction of bin Laden, are using Pakistan to launch their attacks.

The United States needs the government of President Asif Zardari and cannot be seen as being too harsh or critical in its judgment of him. Indeed, Zardari’s position is tenuous, at best, because the Pakistani intelligence service and even the military contain elements of Islamic extremism.

Both services are still smarting from the public humiliation they suffered in May when the Obama administration did not inform the Pakistanis that U.S. special forces were going to infiltrate the country with the goal of getting bin Laden dead or alive.

The stealth helicopter crashed during the raid, with the main fuselage ending up inside the bin Laden compound and the tail section outside the wall. According to the British newspaper, the Financial Times, the Americans smashed the instruments and then rigged up explosives to detonate the main section so that top secret technology would not end up in the wrong hands.

The tail section, however, had to be left behind after the special forces killed bin Laden and took off with his body. The world’s leading terrorist was found in the house in Abbottabad that he had occupied for six years, under the noses of the military and other security forces.

Skin samples

The Financial Times reports that the Pakistanis allowed Chinese military officials to not only inspect the stealth helicopter section, but to take pictures and also a sample of the skin. It is the skin that allows the craft to avoid radar detection.

The Pakistanis denied the report, the Obama administration declined to comment and the Chinese were silent.

The story has more than an element of truth, based on the way America has been stabbed in the back so often by its ally.

Things have gotten so bad that President Obama ordered the withholding of $800 million of the more than $2 billion in economic and military assistance that make its way to Islamabad.

Public opinion in the United States has turned against Pakistan, prompting members of Congress to question the value of an ally that can’t be trusted and whether America is getting a return on its investment.

This latest incident involving the stealth helicopter could well be the last straw for many Americans.