For the US administration the $2 billion military aid to Pakistan should help smoothen out what has been an uneasy relationship between the two countries who are jointly fighting the war on terrorism.
The latest largesse should help the Pakistani armed forces secure their position in Waziristan. It would help them make gains to contain and expel the threat of the Taliban from their soil with the help of the latest military technology.
The aid is a clear sign that the Obama administration is making overt gestures to meet the wish-list of the Pakistan army which has been a major player in propping up the government in the country apart from providing important logistical support for Nato forces in Afghanistan.
The US is trying its best to walk the tightrope between appeasing the army and the civilian government, which is why Pakistan's Foreign Minister Shah Mahmoud Quraishi was his country's public face when the aid was announced while General Ashfaq Kiyani held closed door meetings with officials in Washington.
The US is bound morally and by gesture to help Pakistan as the spectre of the Taliban threat may spiral out of control. They owe it to the hundreds of Pakistani civilians who have lost their lives thanks to irresponsible American actions.
