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Pak misusing US aid to preparing for war on India :Obama |
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Democratic Presidential nominee Barack Obama says Pakistan is diverting US aid to prepare for a war against India. The claim , which did not surprise many in Washington, was made in an interview to Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly last week. “We are providing them military aid without having enough strings attached. But they’re using the aid for preparing a war against India.” Obama said.
Obama’s claim will serve to corroborate the concerns of some in Washington that Pakistan has been misusing US aid intended for the war on terror along its border with Afghanistan. As far back as December of 2007, the New York Times reported: “After the United States has spent more than $5 billion in a largely failed effort to bolster the Pakistani military effort against Al-Qaeda and the Taliban, some American officials now acknowledge that there were too few controls over the money. The strategy to improve the Pakistani military, they said, needs to be completely revamped”.
Obama denied when asked by O’Reilly whether he would end US support to Pakistan if he becomes the President of America. He, however, said, additional military support would be provided targeted at militants, but unlike in the past, it would be ensured that it is not wasted. We wasted $10 billion with Musharraf without holding him accountable for knocking out those safe havens of terrorists. We got to put more pressure on Pakistan to do what they need to do,” he added.
Obama had annoyed Islamabad earlier in the Presidential campaign by suggesting that as President he would authorize US troops to attack terrorists in Pakistan, regardless of whether the Pakistani Government approves. Obama told O’Reilly that “nobody talked about a full-blown invasion” of Pakistan.
Last week US forces under President George W. Bush conducted a ground assault in Pakistan’s South Waziristan province. The covert operations drew swift condemnation form Pakistan’s Parliament. The US Senate is also mulling a Bill, promoted by Obama’s running mate. Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr., to give Pakistan an unconditional $15 billion in developmental aid over a decade. Biden, who is also Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has proposed restricting reimbursements for anti-terrorist operations unless Islamabad does more to fight insurgents along its Afghan border. “We should be willing to spend more if we get better returns- and less if we don’t,” he said. “We believe we’re paying too much and getting too little. The Pakistanis believe exactly the opposite,” Biden said at a recent congressional hearing.
The TIMES reported that in interviews in Islamabad and Washington, Bush Administration and military officials said they believed that much of the American money was “not making its way to frontline Pakistani units. “Money has been diverted to help finance weapons systems designed to counter India, not Al-Qaeda or the Taliban”, the officials said, adding that “the US has paid tens of millions of dollars in inflated Pakistan reimbursement claims for fuel, ammunition and other costs.”
In America’s perception, Pakistan was not “doing enough” and Musharraf was arguably hindering ~ far from helping ~ the war on terror. The struggle against the extremists was viewed in Pakistan as America’s or Musharraf’s war. Of late, the United States has intensified its pressure on Pakistan to either take firm military action in its tribal areas against those who offer the Taliban of Afghanistan sanctuaries and support for attacks across the Pak-Afghan border or risk direct American military action in these areas. Only the other day General Kayani was called to a secret mid-Ocean meeting, aboard a US naval ship, with the US Chairman of Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen.
In the US view, Musharraf’s measures to countenance the Taliban were half-hearted and self-serving. While he sent the Army to track down Al- Qaeda operatives, he allowed the Taliban to regroup. He hedged his bets because he feared that America would soon withdraw.
Within Pakistan, the Army didn’t entirely snap connections with its traditional allies among the Islamic groups. Desperately anxious to survive, the military continued to patronise the religious Right to counter the secular and democratic opposition. Gradually there was growing dissatisfaction in the US over Pakistan’s failure to prevent the incursion of Taliban insurgents from its north-western border to Afghanistan. The Federally Administered Territory of Pakistan became a haven of the Al-Qaeda and Taliban.
In July 2001, a US National Intelligence Estimate, a summary of the reports of 16 American intelligence agencies, mentioned that the Al-Qaeda had been able to reorganise itself and had set up the training infrastructure and network of global communications from its hubs within the country. Mike McConnel, US Director of National Intelligence, said the Al-Qaeda is working hard to “position trained operatives in the USA”.
The Al-Qaeda has now shifted its main operations from Afghanistan to Pakistan. Quite obviously it has taken advantage of a demoralised army and a citizenry that lives in dread of the militants. To the Al-Qaeda it was an opportunity to destabilise the State. Earlier in December 2007, about 40 extremist military commanders set up an umbrella organisation, called the Tahreek-e-Taliban and appointed Baitullah Mehsud as its Amir (leader).
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