CaptainJackSparrow
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Pakistan a bad investment for U.S.
After burning a U.S. flag, Pakistani activists of a student wing of fundamentalist party Jamaat-e-Islami burn an effigy of CIA contractor Raymond Davis during a protest in Karachi on March 7
What does Pakistan do for the United States?
Since 2001, this country has given Pakistan at least $22 billion in aid, so Americans certainly should expect something in return. That's nearly enough money to erase California's long-standing budget deficit or fund the state of Missouri for one year.
In California and Missouri, the money would pay for roads, schools, health care, law enforcement and much more. In Pakistan, what did Washington accomplish? Well, among other things, the United States lined the pockets of senior political and military leaders with millions if not billions of dollars. And when Western auditors ask to see the books, Pakistanis throw up their hands and angrily object to this "humiliation," saying, as one did this year, "You treat us like lackeys!"
A few months ago, despairing over rampant theft of U.S. aid, the United States Agency for International Development hired Transparency International, a German anti-corruption organization, to set up an "anti-fraud hot line." It began operations in December. By last month, callers had provided real evidence of crimes, and suddenly Pakistani militants began threatening to kill the office head, Syed Adil Gilani. He had to flee the country.
Face it: Pakistanis hate Americans. Look at that poor CIA contractor, Raymond Davis, who languished in a miserable Pakistani prison for more than a month after shooting two men who were trying to rob him. Neither Pakistani judicial nor government officials were willing to let him go, afraid that whoever authorized his release would be targeted for assassination - like the two government officials killed so far this year because they betrayed liberal, "Western" sentiments.
A recent public-opinion survey found that barely 21 percent of the nation had any respect whatsoever for the United States.
What does Pakistan do for the United States?
Almost all of that $22 billion gift was intended to train and equip Pakistanis to go after al Qaeda in North Waziristan. Well, almost 10 years later, al Qaeda is still there, largely unperturbed. Pakistani officials used the money they didn't steal to upgrade the nation's military so it will be better prepared to fight an unlikely war with India - all the while pretending that battle tanks and F-16 fighters were to be used against al Qaeda.
Incredibly, the Pentagon, afraid to offend its "allies," went along with this. A Congressional Research Service Report notes that "the Defense Department has characterized F-16 fighters, P-3C patrol aircraft and anti-armor missiles as having significant anti-terrorism applications." Come on. Anti-armor missiles? How many tanks does al Qaeda have?
Not long ago, when new U.S. intelligence suddenly showed an unusually opportune moment to hit senior al Qaeda leaders, Pakistanis said they couldn't take on the mission "due to a shortage of counterinsurgency equipment," the congressional report said. Could there be better evidence of billions wasted?
The United States has managed to kill some al Qaeda militants using missiles fired from drones. Pakistan often supplied the intelligence for those attacks. But last month, Pakistan's intelligence agency, angry about the Raymond Davis affair, suspended all cooperation with the Americans. For almost a month, the U.S. military fired not a single rocket from a drone.
What does Pakistan do for the United States?
The Obama administration is trying a new approach: spend another $7.5 billion on humanitarian aid and economic development to win hearts and minds. From the beginning, it was a hard sell. Pakistani militants already call the American Embassy in Islamabad the "crusader castle." It turned out that Pakistan suffered devastating floods last year. Our nation poured most of its new resources into aid for flood victims. But once again, much of it was stolen.
That information came in over the new fraud hot line. The Pakistani media picked it up, and one province's director general for disaster management was fired.
Given the rampant theft, USAID and the State Department debated how best to disburse the new development aid. State wanted to use the new, in-vogue approach of giving the money directly to the government, "to empower the nation's leaders," as aid jargon puts it.
How ludicrous is this? Instead, the aid money will "enrich the nation's leaders." The two agencies compromised; half the money will be spent through nongovernment groups, but the other half will be placed directly into the outstretched hands of grinning government officials.
What does Pakistan do for the United States?
Steal our money, threaten and imprison our people, loathe and abuse us. Why can't anyone in Washington ever seem to figure this out?
Read more: Pakistan a bad investment for U.S.
© 2011 By Joel Brinkley
Joel Brinkley, a professor of journalism at Stanford University, is a Pulitzer Prize-winning former foreign correspondent for the New York Times. E-mail him at Brinkley@foreign-matters.com. Contact The Chronicle at SFGate.com/chronicle/submissions/#1.
This article appeared on page F - 9 of the San Francisco Chronicle
Pakistan a bad investment for U.S.
