THE times are changing. The US is set to offer Pakistan up to $7 billion in non-military aid. If this happens, it would triple the amount of non-military aid that the US would be giving Pakistan and would be aimed, according to US officials, at "redefining" the bilateral friendship between the two countries. The Americans have also been reiterating their desire to work more closely with the democratically elected representatives in Pakistan as opposed to the lot they had previously been working with. Indeed, with the popular movement of democratic change that has swept the country, the military establishment would really be the wrong horse to back. Not that it ruffled American plans at all during the 60-odd years of the nation's existence. Consistent support to all undemocratic regimes in the country really was unbecoming of the self-styled Land of the Free. It is hoped that the American desire, expressed recently by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, that the Pakistan armed forces would be checked by the civil institutions, would translate into some solid changes in policy as well. For instance, all this new aid, non-military as it may be, should not be tied to Pakistan's acquiescence to unacceptable, ill-thought-out military plans. The sort that have made the security situation in the country, especially in the NWFP, extremely precarious. It would do our governments good to show the independence expected of free nations.