Posted on 02/26/2007 8:46:05 PM PST by CarrotAndStick
WASHINGTON: A senior US administration official said Mus-harraf had made a number of assurances, but the bottom line was that what they were doing now was not working. "The message we're sending to him now is that the only thing that matters is results," he said.
In a surprising revelation, the paper said ties between Musharraf and Bush "have always been tense," and cited officials involved in the debate as saying it was "especially fraught" at the moment. While there has been withering criticism of Pakistan and its role as the fount of international terror in private, US officials, from Bush down, have in public repeatedly praised Musharraf as a frontline ally, ostensibly to win his support.
The tactic, lubricated with large infusions of military and economic aid, was aimed at persuading a militarised Pakistan to turn against the same terrorists it had previously cultivated as a policy.
But evidently, the persuasion has not worked very well. The administration now wants to ratchet up the pressure using the threat of aid cuts.
Pakistan is hopelessly dependent on foreign aid and will go bust if US pulls the plug on it. Its recent economic growth is fuelled by billions in aid and debt write-off from developed countries and Gulf allies.
According to Selig Harrison, a south Asia scholar at the Center for International Policy, the total cost of Musharraf's cooperation in the war on terror has reached a staggering $27.5 billion since 9/11.
Harrison estimates that economic and military aid has totalled $4.5 billion. In addition, US is providing $5 billion in credit guarantees for the purchase of 62 F-16 jets and has orchestrated the postponement of debt repayments to aid donor countries totalling another $13.5 billion.
"The subsidies to the armed forces — $4.5 billion so far and set to reach $7.5 billion in 2008 — are papered over in Pentagon statistics and have received little Congressional scrutiny," Harrison wrote recently.
Pull the plug.
He who pays the piper calls the tune....
That's about $90 per American, I think.
Assuming they would tax us anyway, $27 billion could have fueled some very nice cancer research.
Still, better not to steal it in the first place.
What the heck. 20 billion here,20 billion there,don't worry, Americans are rich.There's no limit to what the golden goose can pay out. LET THE GOOD TIMES ROLL !!!
Musharraf is playing Bush and the US for chumps. I don't know if he is truly in control but the average Paki hates us and supports Islamofacism. We are neither winning hearts and minds nor succeeding by "real politik" criteria.
I'd rather give 27 billion in loans and aid to India and let them crush Pakistan.
use the money to bomb the crap out of them
the only policy that will ever work
The Democrats have cost us a lot more by supporting the terrorists.
Pakistan simply can't be allowed to turn islamist. It would allow radicals to cut our supply lines to Afghanistan and give them access to nukes. Like Musharraff or not, he's all that is standing opposed to those forces in his country.
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