Secretary of State Hillary Clinton informed congress today that she is bypassing legal restrictions that would have blocked some $2 billion in U.S. economic and military aid to Pakistan.
Disbursing the funds, she said in an official notice, is “important to the national security interests of the United States.”
Clinton informed Congress that she was waiving provisions of the 2009 Enhanced Partnership with Pakistan Act and the State Department’s 2012 budget requiring that she certify that Islamabad has met certain conditions before some $2 billion in economic, military and counter-terrorism assistance can be disbursed.
Pakistan was required to have made progress in “ceasing support, including by any elements within the Pakistani military or its intelligence agency, to extremist groups,” especially those that have attacked U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan.
Islamabad also was required to have made progress toward stopping al Qaida, the Afghan Taliban, the Haqqani network and allied Pakistani extremists “from operating in the territory of Pakistan” and staging attacks in neighboring countries. It also must move toward shutting down “terrorist” bases in the tribal areas and other parts of its country.
For the first time, the Obama Administration refused to certify that Pakistan had met these requirements hence the need for Mrs. Clinton to issue a formal waiver. Pakistan has always gotten certified before by the Obama Administration, ludicrous in view of what is going on there with its aiding and abetting of our enemies. The failure to certify must mean things are falling apart so bad that even this administration can't see covering for Pakistan any more.Far easier to just issue the waiver and see to it that the jihadis get their jirzyah.
Because that's what this is, monetary tribute. We need Pakistan's help in trying to get the Taliban to come to a peace agreement with us so we can bug out. And we need to grease palms to make sure Pakistan allows supplies for our troops in Afghanistan to land at the port of Karachi and then get trucked into Afghanistan via the Torkhum pass.
After Osama bin-Laden was assassinated, part of the fallout was that the enraged Pakistanis refused to let supplies go through their territory anymore. A number of trucks already waiting at the border were destroyed by the Taliban with lots of casualties and a huge loss of material.
It was only a few months ago that the Pakistani government again allowed shipments to go through.
We'll likely keep buying them off until we leave. Or grow a spine.
"Or grow a spine." Actually its not simply about growing a spine or becomeing more courageous. Our warriors are plenty courageous and plenty determined. Unfortunately the military and civilian leadership is terrible.
ReplyDeleteFurthermore our military equipment is worn down and outdated and our warriors are being drained in a futile effort in Afghanistan at nation building or whatever the leadership wants to call it. If we grow a spine as you seem to suggest, this would only result in the death and maiming of even more of our precious warriors and the effort would likely be futile, as our equipment and men are in no condition to be able to successfully confront the Pakistani military so far from America. Given the state of the American military, even basic national defense is problematic right now.
I'm all for a "spine" but we've got to be smart about this to. Given that we have no real prospects of being able to confront Pakistan in a military fashion, we should focus on redeployment to positions that make sense for our national security. So far no one that I know of has offered a good solution for how we get our men and equipment out of landlocked Afghanistan when we are surrounded by enemies on all sides. I'd suggest "greasing the palms" so Pakistan will allow us an exit without having to fight our way out.
Any sort of peace treaty at this time with the Taliban is likely impossible. The best we can do at this point, is to redeploy to positions that give us a reasonable chance to defend our country.
Also, develop all of our own oil and gas reserves while building more refineries. This will give us leverage against terrorist supporting nations, diminish the funds available to Islamic terrorists, and perhaps provide alternative sources of oil and gas for some of those who currently rely on Islamic terrorist supporting nations serving to pull them away from the orbit of these nations and into a position more compatible with our needs and interests. At that point, it may be possible to negotiate some type of agreement with them as we would be a much more equal position to them.
What is it going to cost to get our people and equipment out of Afghanistan and how will it be implemented? It has to be done. Clearly we cannot remain in Afghanistan as it is incompatible with the defense of our country to waste precious military resources on this endeavor when even basic national defense is problematic right now.
Even if we had a 1st rate military, it would be bad national policy to use it in nation building/humanitarian efforts. It should only be used in national defense and to advance America's interests. Given that even basic national defense is problematic given the current state of the military, missions like Aghanistan are especially foolhardy.