Donald Trump is playing a dangerous game with Pakistan. Here's why

In Lahore and Karachi, American flags were burned in front of TV cameras after President Trump’s decision on Jan. 4 to withhold $2 billion of security aid from Pakistan to punish it for allegedly harboring terrorists. The country’s government issued angry statements claiming no insurgents were being given sanctuary and that the US wasn’t fully appreciative of the thousands of Pakistani soldiers killed fighting militants.

The rancor isn’t new. The US relationship with Pakistan, which deepened during the Cold War, is both strategic and troubled. The complications increased with the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, when the US funneled