U.S. military assistance to Pakistan has been much debated since U.S. Navy SEALs killed Osama Bin Laden not far from the front gate of the national military academy in Abbottabad, Pakistan, and only a short drive from downtown Islamabad. It’s inconceivable, many knowledgeable people believe, that the Pakistan government, or at the very least its Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) organization, didn’t know Bin Laden was there. How can we continue to give Pakistan billions of dollars in military assistance each year if they are knowingly harboring our worst enemies?

This is an excellent question, but it’s not a new one. It is one Republican and Democratic administrations and the U.S. Congress have asked themselves before. Now it is one that the Obama administration and Congress will have to deal with on a much more public level than in the past.

This issue isn’t likely to come to a head right away. It’s not one administration or most congressional leaders are anxious to deal with. Fiscal year 2011 funds for Pakistan are flowing, and the Obama administration needs time to sort things out with the Pakistan government. It’s the administration's fiscal year 2012 budget request for Pakistan currently being formulated by the executive branch that’s likely to run into opposition in Congress when it’s submitted in a few months. Both the administration and Pakistan will have to demonstrate that Pakistan isn’t taking U.S. money with one hand and holding our enemies' hands with the other.

When Congress holds both public and classified hearings on Pakistan, as they surely will, they will once again hear the many good reasons why the U.S. has provided military assistance to Pakistan and why we should continue to do so. We bolster the Pakistan government and military establishments against the radical forces of Islamist-jihadism inside Pakistan that threaten the county’s stability, and we encourage Pakistan’s assistance for our war efforts in Afghanistan and in Pakistan. Pakistan publically complains about U.S. drone attacks on targets inside their borders while privately approving them. Our bottom line is that Pakistan is an ally in the war with Islamist-jihadist forces, and we want to keep Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal out of terrorist’s hands.

On the other hand, there are many reasons why Congress and others have questioned aid to Pakistan in the past. Chief among them have been Pakistani nuclear scientist A.Q. Khan and his proliferation of nuclear technology along with the Pakistan military’s close relationship with China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA). There has been much concern over the years about Pakistan providing the PLA Air Force (PLAAF) access to sensitive U.S. technology on Pakistan’s F-16s and their associated weapon systems. Currently there are legitimate concerns that the PLAAF will gain access to the undestroyed portions of the stealthy U.S. special operations Black Hawk left behind on Ben Laden’s Abbottabad compound.