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India-Pakistan
Pakistan wants no-strings aid from US
2009-02-08
LONDON: The Obama administration should provide aid to Pakistan without any strings attached, Pakistan's ambassador to the US said in a newspaper interview published on Saturday.

Husain Haqqani told the Financial Times (FT) "assistance that is conditional is never good". His comments came after US Vice President Joe Biden said on Friday the Obama administration would revive a plan to send $1.5 billion of military aid to Pakistan, its key ally in the fight against Taliban forces in Afghanistan.

The US reportedly wants to triple civilian aid but impose conditions to ensure military assistance to Pakistan goes towards fighting insurgents in Afghanistan, not building up defences against India.

Biden was expected to give the first fully-fledged picture of Obama-era US foreign policy at a security conference in Munich, Germany later on.

"Our advice has been that while we can always discuss what the Americans would prefer... (conditional aid) is not going to serve US or Pakistani interests."

Haqqani pledged Pakistan would focus on fighting its "primary threat", which he said currently comes from "terrorism and not from our eastern neighbour". But he warned: "There is no bullet that has been invented that Pakistan can be given to shoot at the terrorists that cannot be used in case there is a war with India."

Following the release of nuclear scientist Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan on Friday, Haqqani said his freedom "may cause a short-term perception problem" though added: "Pakistan now has a genuinely independent judiciary and we have dismantled the AQ Khan network
Posted by:john frum

#15  Isn't that what our government did with the bank bailout with our tax dollars? No strings attached? The Paki Waki's just want in on a good deal when they see one.
Posted by: Tyranysaurus Angegum9270   2009-02-08 17:25  

#14  SPM, you are wasting your time with all caps. We simply don't read it past the first line or so. Better lower case and no caps.
Posted by: Darrell   2009-02-08 16:09  

#13  SPM---appreciate your comments, but ixnay of the apskay ekay. Please, no caps. Only Joe has a license to do that.
Posted by: Alaska Paul   2009-02-08 15:15  

#12  STOP LETTING THESE COUNTRIES DICTATE TERMS TO US. THEY WANT OUR MONEY, O.K. ON OUR TERMS NOT THEIRS. BUSCH AND CLINTON LET THESE COUNTRIES PUSH US AROUND. ITS ABOUT TIME WE PUSH ABCK AND REESTABLISH WHO WE ARE. THESE COUNTRIES SHIT ON US. BUT WHEN THEY NEED HELP, THEY CALL UNCLE SAM
Posted by: SPM   2009-02-08 14:25  

#11  GIVE THEM NOTHING. THEY TAKE OUR MONEY AND DONT LET US USE THEIR COUNTRY TO STOP TERRORISTS. HELP INDIA NOT PAKISTAN. GO AFTER TERRORISTS WITHOUT THEIR APPROVAL. IF THEY INTERFERE SEND IN SOME B52'S AND MAKE PAKISTAN PART OF INDIA. WE WILL NOT STAND FOR THE LOSS OF AMERICAN LIVES. THEY ARE NOT OUR FRIENDS.
Posted by: SPM   2009-02-08 14:22  

#10  So do I. Of course, I want a pony too.
Posted by: Frozen Al   2009-02-08 13:35  

#9  and why should there be no strings attached when yall can't even keep our supply routes open?
Posted by: rabid whitetail   2009-02-08 12:25  

#8  I DON'T THINK THEY EVEN DESERVE WHAT YOU WOULD FIND IN YOUR COUCH CUSHIONS
Posted by: rabid whitetail   2009-02-08 12:11  

#7  Sorry Abdul. You guys aint done nuthin in a long time, you'll get what I can find in my couch cushions.
Posted by: Mike N.   2009-02-08 12:01  

#6  Who wouldn't want "no strings attached" aid? Just send a little of it my way. Seems only fair to me.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon   2009-02-08 11:32  

#5  Hellfires have no strings attached. Send them all they can stand, via airmail!
Posted by: 49 Pan   2009-02-08 11:03  

#4  What! You mean aid to Pakistan is NOT in the stimulus package? Clearly an oversight!
Posted by: DMFD   2009-02-08 10:34  

#3  Margaret Bourke-White, correspondent and photographer for LIFE magazine in September 1947

In the weeks to come I was to hear the Quaid-i-Azam's thesis echoed by government officials throughout Pakistan. "Surely America will build up our army," they would say to me. "Surely America will give us loans to keep Russia from walking in." But when I asked whether there were any signs of Russian infiltration, they would reply almost sadly, as though sorry not to be able to make more of the argument. "No, Russia has shown no signs of being interested in Pakistan."

This hope of tapping the U. S. Treasury was voiced so persistently that one wondered whether the purpose was to bolster the world against Bolshevism or to bolster Pakistan's own uncertain position as a new political entity. Actually, I think, it was more nearly related to the even more significant bankruptcy of ideas in the new Muslim state -- a nation drawing its spurious warmth from the embers of an antique religious fanaticism, fanned into a new blaze.
Posted by: john frum   2009-02-08 10:16  

#2  Cut them off. I'd rather have Obama spend it on pork.
Posted by: Darrell   2009-02-08 09:58  

#1  how about "FOAD"?
Posted by: Frank G   2009-02-08 09:37  

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