Devil Soul
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US suspends military aid to Pakistan. Military says it doesn't need it.
- Thread starter American Pakistani
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Markus
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Mo12
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Yeh he's clearly misinformed, plus there is already a thread on this one.
positive comments from Pakistanis and some mixed. read this comments: US to hold back $800m in aid to Pakistan: NY Times – The Express Tribune
@Markus, yes probably. This is next case we will sort out with Afghan govt and US govt. Right now focus deeply inside Pakistan to clear up sumbags/diseases.
@Markus, yes probably. This is next case we will sort out with Afghan govt and US govt. Right now focus deeply inside Pakistan to clear up sumbags/diseases.
Hulk
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its not just money it is military equipment. they will still focus on Pakistan.
SpArK
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More specifics..
US to suspend millions in aid to the Pakistani military
Washington: The Obama administration is suspending and, in some cases, cancelling hundreds of millions of dollars of aid to the Pakistani military, in a move to chasten Pakistan for expelling American military trainers and to press its army to fight militants more effectively.
Coupled with a statement from the top American military officer last week linking Pakistan's military spy agency to the recent murder of a Pakistani journalist, the halting or withdrawal of military equipment and other aid to Pakistan illustrates the depth of the debate inside the Obama administration over how to change the behaviour of one of its key counterterrorism partners.
Altogether, about $800 million in military aid and equipment, or over one-third of the more than $2 billion in annual American security assistance to Pakistan, could be affected, three senior United States officials said.
This aid includes about $300 million to reimburse Pakistan for some of the costs of deploying more than 100,000 soldiers along the Afghan border to combat terrorism, as well as hundreds of millions of dollars in training assistance and military hardware, according to half a dozen Congressional, Pentagon and other administration officials who were granted anonymity to discuss the politically delicate matter.
Some of the curtailed aid is equipment that the United States wants to send but Pakistan now refuses to accept, like rifles, ammunition, body armour and bomb-disposal gear that were withdrawn or held up after Pakistan ordered more than 100 Army Special Forces trainers to leave the country in recent weeks.
Some is equipment, such as radios, night-vision goggles and helicopter spare parts, which cannot be set up, certified or used for training because Pakistan has denied visas to the American personnel needed to operate the equipment, two senior Pentagon officials said.
And some is assistance like the reimbursements for troop costs, which is being reviewed in light of questions about Pakistan's commitment to carry out counterterrorism operations. For example, the United States recently provided Pakistan with information about suspected bomb-making factories, only to have the insurgents vanish before Pakistani security forces arrived a few days later.
"When it comes to our military aid," Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton told a Senate committee last month "we are not prepared to continue providing that at the pace we were providing it unless and until we see certain steps taken."
American officials say they would probably resume equipment deliveries and aid if relations improve and Pakistan pursues terrorists more aggressively. The cut-offs do not affect any immediate deliveries of military sales to Pakistan, like F-16 fighter jets, or non-military aid, the officials said.
Pakistan's precise military budget is not known, and while the American aid cut-off would probably have a small impact on the overall military budget, it would most directly affect the counterinsurgency campaign. The Pakistani Army spends nearly one-quarter of the nation's annual expenditures, according to K. Alan Kronstadt of the Congressional Research Service.
While some senior administration officials have concluded that Pakistan will never be the kind of partner the administration hoped for when President Obama entered office, others emphasize that the United States cannot risk a full break in relations or a complete cut-off of aid akin to what happened in the 1990s, when Pakistan was caught developing nuclear weapons.
But many of the recent aid curtailments are clearly intended to force the Pakistani military to make a difficult choice between backing the country that finances much of its operations and equipment, or continuing to provide secret support for the Taliban and other militants fighting American soldiers in Afghanistan.
"We have to continue to emphasize with the Pakistanis that in the end it's in their interest to be able to go after these targets as well," Defence Secretary Leon E. Panetta told reporters on Friday en route to Afghanistan.
Some American officials say Pakistan has only itself to blame, citing the Pakistani military's decision to distance itself from American assistance in response to the humiliation suffered from the American commando raid in Abbottabad, Pakistan, that killed Osama bin Laden, as well as rising anger from midlevel Pakistani officers and the Pakistani public that senior military leaders, including Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, the powerful army chief of staff, are too accommodating to the Americans.
Pakistan shut down the American program to help train Pakistani paramilitary troops fighting the Taliban and Al Qaeda in the lawless border regions near Afghanistan, prompting the Americans to take with them equipment Pakistani troops used. The Central Intelligence Agency has been relying more heavily on flying armed drones from Afghanistan since Pakistan threatened to close down a base the C.I.A. was using inside the country.
But in private briefings to senior Congressional staff members last month, Pentagon officials made clear that they were taking a tougher line toward Pakistan and reassessing whether it could still be an effective partner in fighting terrorists.
"They wanted to tell us, 'Guys, we're delivering the message that this is not business as usual and we've got this under control,' " one senior Senate aide said.
Comments last week by Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, also reflected a potentially more confrontational approach to Pakistan. Admiral Mullen, who is retiring in two months, became the first American official to publicly accuse Pakistan of ordering the kidnapping, torture and death of the journalist, Saleem Shahzad, whose mutilated body was found in early June.
Besides the growing tensions, the slowdown in aid can also be attributed to tightening military budgets as lawmakers seek deeper cuts in Pentagon spending to help address the mounting government debt.
There is growing opposition on Capitol Hill to sending security assistance to Pakistan. Last week, the Republican-controlled House approved a Pentagon budget bill that limits the Defence Department from spending more than 25 per cent of its projected $1.1 billion budget for training and equipping Pakistani troops next year, unless the secretaries of defence and state submit a report to Congress showing how the money will be spent to combat insurgencies.
The Pakistani military is the most important institution in the country. But it has been under intense domestic and international pressure because of the humiliation of the Bin Laden raid, an attack on Pakistan's main navy base in Karachi weeks later, and continuing fallout from the arrest and subsequent release of a C.I.A. security contractor, Raymond A. Davis, who shot and killed two Pakistanis in January in what he said was a robbery.
The United States has long debated how hard it can push Pakistan to attack militant strongholds in the tribal area. Washington, however, depends on Pakistan as a major supply route into Afghanistan. American officials also want to monitor as closely as they can Pakistan's burgeoning nuclear weapons arsenal.
The decision to hold back much of the American military aid has not been made public by the Pakistani military or the civilian government. But it is well known at the top levels of the military, and a senior Pakistani official described it as an effort by the Americans to gain "leverage."
A former Pakistani diplomat, Maleeha Lodhi, who served twice as ambassador to the United States, said the Pentagon action was short-sighted, and was likely to produce greater distance between the two countries.
"It will be repeating a historic blunder and hurting itself in the bargain by using a blunt instrument of policy at a time when it needs Pakistan's help to defeat Al Qaeda and make an honourable retreat from Afghanistan," Ms. Lodhi said of the United States.
Washington imposed sanctions on Pakistan in the 1990s, and in the process lost influence with the Pakistani military, Ms. Lodhi said. Similarly, the Obama administration would find itself out in the cold with the Pakistani Army if it held up funds, she said.
Within the Pakistani Army, the hold on American assistance would be viewed as "an unfriendly act and total disregard of the sacrifices made by the army," said Brig. Javed Hussain, a retired special forces officer.
Read more at: US to suspend millions in aid to the Pakistani military
US to suspend millions in aid to the Pakistani military
Washington: The Obama administration is suspending and, in some cases, cancelling hundreds of millions of dollars of aid to the Pakistani military, in a move to chasten Pakistan for expelling American military trainers and to press its army to fight militants more effectively.
Coupled with a statement from the top American military officer last week linking Pakistan's military spy agency to the recent murder of a Pakistani journalist, the halting or withdrawal of military equipment and other aid to Pakistan illustrates the depth of the debate inside the Obama administration over how to change the behaviour of one of its key counterterrorism partners.
Altogether, about $800 million in military aid and equipment, or over one-third of the more than $2 billion in annual American security assistance to Pakistan, could be affected, three senior United States officials said.
This aid includes about $300 million to reimburse Pakistan for some of the costs of deploying more than 100,000 soldiers along the Afghan border to combat terrorism, as well as hundreds of millions of dollars in training assistance and military hardware, according to half a dozen Congressional, Pentagon and other administration officials who were granted anonymity to discuss the politically delicate matter.
Some of the curtailed aid is equipment that the United States wants to send but Pakistan now refuses to accept, like rifles, ammunition, body armour and bomb-disposal gear that were withdrawn or held up after Pakistan ordered more than 100 Army Special Forces trainers to leave the country in recent weeks.
Some is equipment, such as radios, night-vision goggles and helicopter spare parts, which cannot be set up, certified or used for training because Pakistan has denied visas to the American personnel needed to operate the equipment, two senior Pentagon officials said.
And some is assistance like the reimbursements for troop costs, which is being reviewed in light of questions about Pakistan's commitment to carry out counterterrorism operations. For example, the United States recently provided Pakistan with information about suspected bomb-making factories, only to have the insurgents vanish before Pakistani security forces arrived a few days later.
"When it comes to our military aid," Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton told a Senate committee last month "we are not prepared to continue providing that at the pace we were providing it unless and until we see certain steps taken."
American officials say they would probably resume equipment deliveries and aid if relations improve and Pakistan pursues terrorists more aggressively. The cut-offs do not affect any immediate deliveries of military sales to Pakistan, like F-16 fighter jets, or non-military aid, the officials said.
Pakistan's precise military budget is not known, and while the American aid cut-off would probably have a small impact on the overall military budget, it would most directly affect the counterinsurgency campaign. The Pakistani Army spends nearly one-quarter of the nation's annual expenditures, according to K. Alan Kronstadt of the Congressional Research Service.
While some senior administration officials have concluded that Pakistan will never be the kind of partner the administration hoped for when President Obama entered office, others emphasize that the United States cannot risk a full break in relations or a complete cut-off of aid akin to what happened in the 1990s, when Pakistan was caught developing nuclear weapons.
But many of the recent aid curtailments are clearly intended to force the Pakistani military to make a difficult choice between backing the country that finances much of its operations and equipment, or continuing to provide secret support for the Taliban and other militants fighting American soldiers in Afghanistan.
"We have to continue to emphasize with the Pakistanis that in the end it's in their interest to be able to go after these targets as well," Defence Secretary Leon E. Panetta told reporters on Friday en route to Afghanistan.
Some American officials say Pakistan has only itself to blame, citing the Pakistani military's decision to distance itself from American assistance in response to the humiliation suffered from the American commando raid in Abbottabad, Pakistan, that killed Osama bin Laden, as well as rising anger from midlevel Pakistani officers and the Pakistani public that senior military leaders, including Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, the powerful army chief of staff, are too accommodating to the Americans.
Pakistan shut down the American program to help train Pakistani paramilitary troops fighting the Taliban and Al Qaeda in the lawless border regions near Afghanistan, prompting the Americans to take with them equipment Pakistani troops used. The Central Intelligence Agency has been relying more heavily on flying armed drones from Afghanistan since Pakistan threatened to close down a base the C.I.A. was using inside the country.
But in private briefings to senior Congressional staff members last month, Pentagon officials made clear that they were taking a tougher line toward Pakistan and reassessing whether it could still be an effective partner in fighting terrorists.
"They wanted to tell us, 'Guys, we're delivering the message that this is not business as usual and we've got this under control,' " one senior Senate aide said.
Comments last week by Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, also reflected a potentially more confrontational approach to Pakistan. Admiral Mullen, who is retiring in two months, became the first American official to publicly accuse Pakistan of ordering the kidnapping, torture and death of the journalist, Saleem Shahzad, whose mutilated body was found in early June.
Besides the growing tensions, the slowdown in aid can also be attributed to tightening military budgets as lawmakers seek deeper cuts in Pentagon spending to help address the mounting government debt.
There is growing opposition on Capitol Hill to sending security assistance to Pakistan. Last week, the Republican-controlled House approved a Pentagon budget bill that limits the Defence Department from spending more than 25 per cent of its projected $1.1 billion budget for training and equipping Pakistani troops next year, unless the secretaries of defence and state submit a report to Congress showing how the money will be spent to combat insurgencies.
The Pakistani military is the most important institution in the country. But it has been under intense domestic and international pressure because of the humiliation of the Bin Laden raid, an attack on Pakistan's main navy base in Karachi weeks later, and continuing fallout from the arrest and subsequent release of a C.I.A. security contractor, Raymond A. Davis, who shot and killed two Pakistanis in January in what he said was a robbery.
The United States has long debated how hard it can push Pakistan to attack militant strongholds in the tribal area. Washington, however, depends on Pakistan as a major supply route into Afghanistan. American officials also want to monitor as closely as they can Pakistan's burgeoning nuclear weapons arsenal.
The decision to hold back much of the American military aid has not been made public by the Pakistani military or the civilian government. But it is well known at the top levels of the military, and a senior Pakistani official described it as an effort by the Americans to gain "leverage."
A former Pakistani diplomat, Maleeha Lodhi, who served twice as ambassador to the United States, said the Pentagon action was short-sighted, and was likely to produce greater distance between the two countries.
"It will be repeating a historic blunder and hurting itself in the bargain by using a blunt instrument of policy at a time when it needs Pakistan's help to defeat Al Qaeda and make an honourable retreat from Afghanistan," Ms. Lodhi said of the United States.
Washington imposed sanctions on Pakistan in the 1990s, and in the process lost influence with the Pakistani military, Ms. Lodhi said. Similarly, the Obama administration would find itself out in the cold with the Pakistani Army if it held up funds, she said.
Within the Pakistani Army, the hold on American assistance would be viewed as "an unfriendly act and total disregard of the sacrifices made by the army," said Brig. Javed Hussain, a retired special forces officer.
Read more at: US to suspend millions in aid to the Pakistani military
SpArK
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With U.S. military aid cut, Pakistan eyes China
ISLAMABAD - Pakistan's increasingly "close and effective defense ties" established with China during the past decade will allow Islamabad to "fill the gap" arising from the prospect of reduced military aid from the United States, a senior Pakistani official said on Sunday after reports emerged of cuts of up to $800 million in U.S. aid.
Amid tense relations with the United States, Pakistan officials have increasingly pointed towards Beijing as the country's natural ally, offering the possibility of becoming at least a half-substitute to ties with the U.S.
On Sunday, The New York Times reported that the Obama administration was suspending and in some cases canceling up to $800 million in annual military aid and equipment to Pakistan - more than one-third of the $2 billion earmarked for security assistance annually to the South Asian country.
The U.S. decision would mark a significant punitive measure by Washington which in the past has sought to build up close ties with Pakistan's armed forces (notably the Army and Air Force) in its campaign to defeat al Qaeda and the Taliban in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region.
But relations have continued to deteriorate since the May 2 raid by U.S. Navy SEALs in which Osama bin Laden was targeted and killed in Pakistan's northern city of Abbottabad.
U.S. officials withheld information from their Pakistani counterparts until after the raid, mainly over concerns that sympathizers of Islamic militants within Pakistan's intelligence and military services would have alerted al Qaeda ahead of the attack.
Stung by the U.S. decision, Pakistan's influential military ordered more than 120 American trainers deployed in the country to leave.
On Sunday, the senior Pakistani official who spoke to CBS News on condition of anonymity following the Times report said, "This tightening of U.S. military aid was expected. That's where our long-term relations with China will help to meet this gap."
In recent weeks, Pakistani officials have pointed towards China's increasing role in the past decade as its main supplier of military hardware, as Pakistan established closer ties to the U.S. campaign against terror following the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington.
During the past decade, Pakistan began jointly producing the JF-17 Thunder fighter plane with China. The Pakistan Air Force (PAF) plans to eventually introduce up to 250 of the JF-17 fighter planes - the largest deployment of any aircraft in its history.
Earlier this year, the Pakistani government also publicly announced its approval for the Pakistan Navy to begin negotiations with China for the purchase of up to six new submarines, in a move that - if successful - will become the largest single hardware order by the Navy.
Western diplomats, however, said that Pakistan's worsening relations with the U.S. will only cause harm to its interests irrespective of the extent of the support that it receives from China.
"The US has a long history of giving economic and military assistance to Pakistan, which by far outpaces China in dollar terms," said one Western diplomat in Islamabad who spoke to CBS News on condition of anonymity. "Worsening ties with the U.S. could push Pakistan towards isolation.
"I don't think it's wise for Pakistan to be playing down the importance of the U.S. as a partner, just because there have been some defense deals with China," added the diplomat.
With U.S. military aid cut, Pakistan eyes China - World Watch - CBS News
One note interesting: America feel more insulted just because Pakistan expelled their American military trainers without praising to the sacrifices of Pakistan Army so much for the sake of US's demands. Cut the Aids craps!
How pathetic!
Beware Obama will make more mischevious action on Pakistan (another Abottabad raid I suspect probably) before election.
How pathetic!
Beware Obama will make more mischevious action on Pakistan (another Abottabad raid I suspect probably) before election.
mirage 5000
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ohhhh so now its come out the real relation between USA and PAKISTAN . you follow our orders we will give you money .lolz kick the now we as a nation waiting since last 5 years to stop this begegging and start work.
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