A Recipe for Disaster in Pakistan
More of Barack Obama's diplomatic brilliance on display.
From "Blank Cheque for Pakistan," in the New Delhi Pioneer, online edition (http://www.dailypioneer.com/207706/Blank-cheque-for-Pakistan.html):
It is absolutely shocking that the Obama Administration, in spite of all its talk of evolving a new, inclusive strategy to deal with Pakistan, has decided to dole out more American dollars to Islamabad without any strings attached.
The US Congress legislation that was passed last week will see Pakistan receive civilian aid worth $ 7.5 billion over a period of five years along with military aid of an unspecified amount. The aid package is ostensibly meant for democratic, economic and social development programmes aimed at alleviating poverty and diminishing the allure of Islamist groups among Pakistani youth.
Now, keep in mind that we are doing this despite the fact that Pakistan has been sheltering Al Qaeda and the Taliban for over eight years now after 9-11 (and more or less created the Taliban in the first place), and still refuses to let us go in there after them. To do this is more or less rewarding Pakistan for its intransigent policy.
Look at the incentive structure of the game that we have implicitly set up. If Pakistan chooses to go after and destroy the Terrorists in their North West, then they must actually fight a war against them, and once they succeed there will be an end to these US aid packages. OTOH, if Pakistan does not fight the Terrorists, they get the aid, and the US does absolutely nothing to punish them for sheltering the Terrorists.
If it were not for the fact that the Terrorists rather obviously threaten the Pakistani regime as well, we would get no cooperation from the Pakistanis at all. Why would they want to cooperate, when we give them such perverse incentives?
That Islamabad has been diverting American aid - civilian and military - to finance terrorism and arm itself against India is no secret. Neither can the argument be made that the US is unaware of this reality. When you have a former Pakistani President openly admit in a television interview that he had used American aid meant for fighting terrorism to strengthen his country’s conventional military prowess vis-à-vis India, one would think that it would be adequate proof of Pakistan’s nefarious designs.
In other words, not only is Pakistan not using most of the aid to fight terrorism, Pakistan is using much of the aid to strengthen itself so that it can the more safely BASE terrorism. This is tantamount to America spending her own money to ensure that Pakistan need worry less about retaliation from India for atrocities such as the Mumbai Massacre.
George W. Bush had an excuse for paying off Pakistan. He was busy in Iraq.
What's Barack Obama's reason?
From "Blank Cheque for Pakistan," in the New Delhi Pioneer, online edition (http://www.dailypioneer.com/207706/Blank-cheque-for-Pakistan.html):
It is absolutely shocking that the Obama Administration, in spite of all its talk of evolving a new, inclusive strategy to deal with Pakistan, has decided to dole out more American dollars to Islamabad without any strings attached.
The US Congress legislation that was passed last week will see Pakistan receive civilian aid worth $ 7.5 billion over a period of five years along with military aid of an unspecified amount. The aid package is ostensibly meant for democratic, economic and social development programmes aimed at alleviating poverty and diminishing the allure of Islamist groups among Pakistani youth.
Now, keep in mind that we are doing this despite the fact that Pakistan has been sheltering Al Qaeda and the Taliban for over eight years now after 9-11 (and more or less created the Taliban in the first place), and still refuses to let us go in there after them. To do this is more or less rewarding Pakistan for its intransigent policy.
Look at the incentive structure of the game that we have implicitly set up. If Pakistan chooses to go after and destroy the Terrorists in their North West, then they must actually fight a war against them, and once they succeed there will be an end to these US aid packages. OTOH, if Pakistan does not fight the Terrorists, they get the aid, and the US does absolutely nothing to punish them for sheltering the Terrorists.
If it were not for the fact that the Terrorists rather obviously threaten the Pakistani regime as well, we would get no cooperation from the Pakistanis at all. Why would they want to cooperate, when we give them such perverse incentives?
That Islamabad has been diverting American aid - civilian and military - to finance terrorism and arm itself against India is no secret. Neither can the argument be made that the US is unaware of this reality. When you have a former Pakistani President openly admit in a television interview that he had used American aid meant for fighting terrorism to strengthen his country’s conventional military prowess vis-à-vis India, one would think that it would be adequate proof of Pakistan’s nefarious designs.
In other words, not only is Pakistan not using most of the aid to fight terrorism, Pakistan is using much of the aid to strengthen itself so that it can the more safely BASE terrorism. This is tantamount to America spending her own money to ensure that Pakistan need worry less about retaliation from India for atrocities such as the Mumbai Massacre.
George W. Bush had an excuse for paying off Pakistan. He was busy in Iraq.
What's Barack Obama's reason?