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| India-Pakistan | |||
| Aid suspension to hurt US more than Pakistan | |||
| 2011-07-12 | |||
Holding back the $800 million in aid is unlikely to pressure Pakistan to increase cooperation with the US and could strengthen those in the government who argue that Washington is a fickle ally who can’t be trusted, they said. “If you still need the relationship, which clearly the United States does, then it really doesn’t make sense to take action at this time because it leaves the United States with less, not more, influence with the Pakistani military,” said Maleeha Lodhi, a former Pakistani ambassador to the US. “Cooperation cannot be coerced by punitive actions,” she said.
The relationship took a nosedive on May 2 when US commandos staged a covert raid to kill Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad. The raid humiliated the Pakistani military, which ordered US trainers out of the country and reduced bilateral cooperation. The lack of trainers means that planned US equipment cannot be put into service, which reduces some of the needed aid. Also, about $300 million from the trimmed aid was intended to reimburse Pakistan for the cost of deploying troops along the Afghan border. But US officials claim that Pakistan has not lived up to pledges to uproot and disrupt Taliban militants and suspected Al Qaeda factions in the border region. The sanctions left many Pakistanis with a sense that the US was only interested in a “transactional” relationship that it could abandon once its interests were served. Pakistan army spokesman Maj Gen Abbas said that the military had received no official notice from the US that aid was being suspended. He also said that the loss of aid would have no effect on military operations against terrorists because they were being conducted with Pakistan’s own resources. “I think it hurts Washington more than it hurts Islamabad,” said Lodhi, the former ambassador. “Assistance is influence, and when you withhold it or suspend it, you deprive yourself of influence.”
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| Posted by:Steve White |
| #5 All that influence we bought sure has done a lot of good, hasn't it... Indeed. Perhaps a more traditional strategy, something less nuanced, like killing people and blowing up their stuff. So, who's up for a drone zap? |
| Posted by: SteveS 2011-07-12 23:35 |
| #4 Buy $800 mil worth of JDAMS and start bombing the crap out of anybody who messes with us. THAT they understand. |
| Posted by: mojo 2011-07-12 10:55 |
| #3 I agree, dont bet on it. Pakis have so few thing to be proud of...their military has been the one institution which seemed to remain dependable, relatively efficient, and honest. The Paki middle class always felt it could rely on the Military when all else had failed. Now without American technology and supply the whole world can be treated to a paki military with monkeyboy written all over it. And they didnt know that bin Laden was right there next to their Academy, right? That's monkeyboy times ten. What makes it worse is the Paki military knows it about THEMSELVES.....and they look like goombah el Jeffe without a rumpstick. |
| Posted by: de Medici 2011-07-12 04:58 |
| #2 If the WOT ends without at least one US cruise missile striking Islamabad, I'm going to be severely disappointed. |
| Posted by: Destro 2011-07-12 02:06 |
| #1 Pre Sept. 11, 2001, Pakistan was imploding from sanctions and a cut off of aid for their 1998 nuke tests. Post Sept. 11, 2001: Laissez les bon temps rouler! |
| Posted by: Eohippus Phater7165 2011-07-12 01:50 |