As Trump freezes aid, Pakistan’s terror problem very real
Pakistan recently sought American help to build a fence along its Afghan border — and Pakistan wants President Trump to pay for it. That’s according to Nasir Khan Janjua, national security advisor to the Pakistani prime minister. Could this be a ruse to restore U. S. aid to Pakistan, using language Trump can understand?
Afghanistan has suffered a surge in violence recently.
While ISIS is on the ropes in Iraq and Syria, some terrorists have fled eastward and conducted attacks on Afghan soil. These have killed one hundred people at an outpost near Kabul. They also murdered 20 people, including Americans, at a luxury hotel.
The violence is not likely to end any time soon. Pakistan claims it can protect itself from this, although no fences can fix its internal terrorist problem.
Many theories can explain this surge, including one that traces it to a January presidential tweet, when Trump announced he would withhold aid to Pakistan because of the country’s support for the Taliban and similar groups. He tweeted, “The United States has foolishly
given Pakistan more than 33 billion dollars in aid over the last 15 years, and they have given us nothing but lies & deceit.”
The aid freezing includes security aid to Pakistan. It also involved putting the country on a watch list for violations of human rights, in particular those of its religious minorities.
This message certainly needed to be sent; Pakistan has been a terrorist breeding ground for decades now, and Trump’s threat insists that it must do more to combat violent jihadists and those who provide them shelter and support. Aid is designed to help the poor.
Tragically, not one foreign dollar seems to have trickled down to improve their lot. All aid has gone to Pakistani political thugs like Nawaz Sharif and the military, which has an Islamist infiltration problem. These people have fattened their bank balances and done little to solve the terror problem.
Pundits predicted that the distancing of Pakistan from the U. S. will have its disadvantages. Pakistan has always been cosy with China, and if Trump jettisons Pakistan, it will drive the two Asian nations closer together, cementing an anti- U. S. alliance.
More importantly, sinister Pakistani groups would now feel they have a free hand to keep a porous border with neighboring Afghanistan, allowing jihadis to come and go and terror to increase.
Tactical support and safe havens have always been available, but now Pakistan would feel no compulsion to cooperate with the U. S. and it could withhold information or any assistance that could be crucial to curbing terror.