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Saturday, April 4, 2009

US plans $3 billion military boost for Pakistan


The US Defence Department has a three billion dollar plan to train and equip Pakistans military over the next five years, US media reported Friday. The funds would pay for helicopters, night-vision goggles and other equipment and counterinsurgency training for Pakistans special operations forces and Frontier Corps paramilitary troops, the New York Times said.It quoted Pentagon officials as saying up to 500 million dollars could come from a yearly emergency war budget that President Barack Obamas administration is to present to Congress next week. But with some legislators expressing concern over the Pakistan Counterinsurgency Capability Fund, the top US military officer acknowledged that the United States had not mandated enough accountability for the funds."There hasnt been an audit trail, and there havent been accountability measures put in place, and there needs to be for all the funds," Admiral Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the Timess editorial board. "So were going to do that. For this counterinsurgency money, which is important, it is critical that it goes for exactly that and nowhere else."Mullen said the Pakistani military must change its focus from fighting arch-foe India to combating militants and insurgents within its borders. "Thats not going to change overnight," he said. Mullen said insurgents operating in safe havens in Pakistan were preparing attacks against Afghanistan and Pakistan. "The Taliban, in particular, are going both ways now," he said."They are coming toward Islamabad and they are actually going toward Kabul. Im completely convinced that the vast majority of the leaders in Pakistan understand the seriousness of the threat." With insurgents in Afghanistan led and backed by hard-line militants in tribal areas over the border in Pakistan, the United States has warned Islamabad that in return for economic and military aid it must crack down on Islamist groups.Mullen said last month that aid to Pakistan needed to be linked to concrete action but expressed confidence that the countrys military grasped the nature of the threat within its borders. He said the Pakistani military leadership, including chief of staff General Ashfaq Kayani, understood that the militants posed a threat to Pakistan itself."I have great confidence in General Kayani and in the Pakistani military," said Mullen, who holds frequent talks with his Pakistani counterpart. Despite the deployment of more than 100,000 troops, Pakistan has been unable to stop a wave of attacks by Taliban and al Qaeda-linked militants that have killed 1,700 since July 2007.

2 comments:

The clever Pakistanis have roped the US taxpayers into its bid for military parity with India, not just minimum deterrence. Since the imminent threat from India could no longer be justified, not even when it kills 180 people in Mumbai, and the thousands in it proxy war, it is now using even more than in the past, the terrorists as the excuse for the massive funding it is now receiving. Note the weapons that it is being given, and you will quickly see that they are not intended for use against the terrorists, but for use against India, whilst it provocatively needles India into a fight so it would have further reason to fire 10 nuclear missiles into India, leaving China to pick up the pieces, in its "giving to China a blank cheque to deal with India". It is a terrible shame that the US is so popular and loved among Indians, and they are so hated in Pakistan, and yet the Pakistanis, get the "military gifts" and the Indians have now to cough up the money, that could have been spent on other more pressing issues, on weapons to counter the threat from Pakistan. Is the US a friend of India or is it its enemy? What sin, what outrage, what evil can Pakistan do to Americans, worse than 9/11, that would cause them to see Pakistan as their enemy and begin to pressure it to live like a civilized neighbour in the region and in the world? It appears, None! Maybe another attack on it, 100 times greater than 9/11 might help to bring it to its senses. America keeps arming Pakistan. China keeps arming Pakistan? Is all this not intended to destroy India?

Politics is always a very complex game, even more than chess

Pakistan can simply pull few troops from border and Afghanistan situation will be like living hell to Americans, that’s the main reason they are paying and are trying their level best to keep them n their side. So USA is actually saving money (by spending on less expensive Pakistani troops )and also minimizing loss of American life that counts most for any one in power in America.

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