A Pakistani shepherd walks past the Abbottabad hideout where Osama bin Laden was killed. (PHOTO CREDIT: AAMIR QURESHI/AFP/GETTY IMAGES)
FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:
There was a line in the "The Godfather, Part II": "Keep your friends close but your enemies closer." When it comes to Pakistan, which are they?
Osama bin Laden was living in a $1 million compound surrounded by 12-to-18-foot high walls topped with razor wire. It was in the middle of a quiet suburban town filled with retired Pakistani military officers. It was just yards away from the Pakistan Military Academy, which is basically that nation's West Point.
The compound was reportedly called Waziristan Mansion, after the tribal mountainous region of Pakistan where bin Laden fled after the September 11 attacks. There was no television and no phone lines. Instead of putting their trash out for collection, the people living with bin Laden burned it.
Come on.
If Pakistani officials didn't know who was living there, the neighbors likely did.
Neighborhood children even suspected something was up. They were not allowed to get a ball if it was accidentally kicked or thrown onto the property. Instead, they were given $2 to $3 to buy a new one. Other kids were invited to play with pet rabbits on the compound but noticed security cameras everywhere.
Ray Charles probably could have figured out who lived there. My guess is the Pakistani government wasn't looking very hard. And it's not because they didn't have the means to do so. The United States has given about $20 billion dollars in foreign aid to Pakistan over the past eight years - money meant to help combat terrorism. And as long as bin Laden remained at large, it was pretty easy to make the argument for that money.
Here’s my question to you: What should the U.S. do about Pakistan?
Interested to know which ones made it on air?
Stan:
Push for more accountability on the aid Pakistan receives. Push for more of the aid to go to the public sector instead of the military. If the administration withholds all aid, Pakistan will probably go to China for aid and stop any cooperation with the U.S. like allowing use of bases and supply routes to Afghanistan for U.S. troops among other things.
Centeno:
There is no doubt that Osama bin Laden was Pakistan's cash cow. As long as he was alive they could have milked the U.S.A of billions of dollars in aid. It was in their interest that Osama bin Laden be protected. What had to be done was done. This ends the free ride. The U.S.A. should seek more trustworthy allies in the region and use part of this foreign aid fund that would have gone to Pakistan to boost Homeland Security.
Patricia:
This morning, while watching CNN news, I saw a story showing Pakistanis having a "funeral" for bin Laden and they were burning American flags! And we send them billions of dollars per year? Tell me, what is wrong with this picture?
Elizabeth in Toronto:
Nothing. Sometimes it's best to do nothing. The U.S.A. does not always have to do something! The U.S.A. has to stop acting out what everyone wants it to do. Move to the next thing like getting U.S. citizens jobs!
Sam:
Japanese export cars, Saudi Arabia exports oil, Afghanistan exports opium and Pakistan exports terrorism. For the Pakistani military, terrorism is a revenue generating business with terrorists bartered and sold like a commodity. Until the rest of the world understands and deals with this problem, it will not go away.
Rich in Texas:
Sadly, there is not much the U.S. can do. As long as we have military in Afghanistan and in Iraq we need Pakistan to some extent. They also happen to have nuclear weapons and we can not ignore that small but lethal fact.