With friends like Pakistan, who needs enemies?

The relationship between the U.S. and Pakistan has always been described as turbulent. Even though the U.S. considers Pakistan an ally in the war on terror, there has always been a degree of tension between our government and Pakistani leaders.

On May 2, President Obama launched an unsanctioned military attack in Pakistan that led to the death of Osama bin Laden. Many Americans, including me, were disturbed by the fact that bin Laden was living in a gated compound just half a mile away from a Pakistani military academy similar to West Point, and not far from the capital city of Islamabad.

This led many U.S. policy makers and military experts to question whether Pakistan was aiding and abetting bin Laden and his terrorist network or whether the country’s intelligence network was just incompetent. However, members of Obama’s staff quickly downplayed the criticism, reminding Americans that more terrorists have been captured and killed in Pakistan over the last decade than in any other nation.

On June 14, the situation took another dramatic turn when Pakistan’s top military spy agency arrested some of the Pakistani informants who had given information to the Central Intelligence Agency that led to our hunting down bin Laden.

According to reports, Pakistan arrested five informants, including a Pakistani army official who copied the license plate numbers of cars visiting bin Laden’s compound. These arrests are just another indication that the relationship between the U.S. and Pakistan is becoming increasingly fractured.

Pakistan appears to be both embarrassed and angered by the fact that Americans launched a military attack in its nation without the government’s permission, and that the CIA has developed its own sources within the country’s borders. Pakistan is refusing to cooperate with the U.S. during a critical period in which Al Qaeda could finally be beaten into submission. Reports indicate that Al Qaeda is having a difficult time dealing with the loss of bin Laden and the amount of information the U.S. gained in the raid of his compound.