Slashing aid for Pakistan

last updated 8 January 2015

Frustrated with Pakistan’s uncooperative behavior, the Obama administration announced it would hold back $800 million of the $2 billion it grants the country in annual military aid. Administration officials said Pakistan has been expelling U.S. Special Forces advisers and arresting Pakistanis who helped the U.S. prepare its raid on Osama bin Laden’s Abbottabad hideout in May. They also said Pakistan’s military refuses to purge itself of Taliban collaborators or conduct operations against Afghan rebels in North Waziristan. “Until we get through these difficulties,” said White House Chief of Staff William M. Daley, “we’ll hold back some of the money that the American taxpayers have committed to give.”

Bravo, said Investor’s Business Daily in an editorial. It’s time for Pakistan to “show its cooperation is more than just a façade to milk the U.S. for more cash.” Sure, the Pakistanis have immediately begun “huffing and bluffing,” saying they’ll turn to China instead. But that’s nothing new; they may already be using U.S. aid to buy Chinese nukes. And our generals say the Pakistani government sanctioned the torture and killing of reporter Syed Shahzad after he revealed that Pakistan supports the Taliban in Quetta and the Haqqani group operating out of Pakistan’s tribal region.

But withholding aid could backfire, said Tony Karon in Timeâ€‹.com. Pakistanis see the Taliban as their proxy in a struggle with archrival India for control of Afghanistan. In their view, Hamid Karzai’s beleaguered government there could end up as a puppet regime of India. Meanwhile, the Pakistani public is furious over U.S. drone strikes on Pakistani soil. So no one should be surprised “if Pakistan’s response to Washington anteing up is not to fold but rather to double down.”