Monday, March 2, 2009

To Stem Terror In Pakistan, US Looks Beyond Military

SOURCES: Collated by Congressional Research Service (Nov. 10, 2008 report) using data from US Departments of State, Defense, and Agriculture and the US Agency for International Development/Rich Clabau

From The Christian Science Monitor:

Washington is seeking to build the Pakistani state and its economy as a way to wean the country from Islamic extremism.

Washington - In an admission that its dependence on the Pakistani military has yielded few results against the Taliban, the United States is now seeking to change its relationship with Pakistan – the world's sole Muslim nuclear power and home of Al Qaeda's leadership.

President Barack Obama's first budget, released last week, proposes significant increases in nonmilitary aid to Pakistan and neighboring Afghanistan. In addition, two influential senators are expected to file legislation in the coming days that would triple nonmilitary US aid to Pakistan to $1.5 billion a year and include $5 billion to stave off an imminent economic crisis.

Read more ....

My Comment: Everyone is now focused on Afghanistan and Pakistan.

For Pakistan, they have been having the same problems since Independence Day in 1949. A dysfunctional and corrupt government. Islamic extremism. A military and intelligence apparatus that consistently operates independently from the central government. An educational and social system that spends more time preaching hate against other religious and ethnic groups, instead of teaching the basics of science, literature, and tolerance

A couple of billion dollars from the U.S. taxpayer will not solve a problem in a society that has existed for centuries.

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