Congress has begun openly debating the
United States' relationship with Pakistan, which seems to be playing
the role of both "firefighter and arsonist", when it comes to helping
the US fight terrorism.
Congressional Republicans and Democrats have warned Pakistan that
billions of dollars in American aid are at stake if Islamabad does not
step up its efforts against terrorists- a clear sign of the growing
exasperation after the US takedown of Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden
deep inside Pakistan, CBS News reports.The United States has provided more than 20 billion dollars to Pakistan since 2002, making the country one of the largest US aid recipients, according to the Congressional Research Service.
Nearly 9 billion dollars of that aid has been reimbursements for Pakistan's costs to support the US-led military campaign in Afghanistan, according to the report.
There have been efforts in Congress to cut some of the 1.1-billion-dollar aid for Pakistan in the defense bill in the House.
Before the hearing on Pakistan-US relations, Senator Dick Luger, the ranking Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, issued a statement that detailed the reasons it's been so difficult to deal with Pakistan's leadership.
"One of the main problems in dealing with Pakistan is that its government is not a monolith, but rather a collection of different power centres that interact in complex ways," said the statement.
"There is the elected civilian government, which over the years has not always been strong or stable; the uniformed military, which has seized power at various junctures; the intelligence service, which has its own independence within the military; and, we are told, a shadowy group of former intelligence agents that can act on its own," it added.
The statement said that these different actors alternately compete and cooperate with one another, and their influence periodically waxes and wanes.
"Equally vexing, each of the players can support US policies one moment, but obstruct them the next. Add to this mix volatile public elements that can be whipped into an anti-American fervor, and you have a partner who can seem, as some have said, to be both firefighter and arsonist," it added.
Retired General James Jones, US President Barack Obama's former national security adviser, suggested on Tuesday that America impose conditions on American aid, linking it to whether Pakistan rejects terrorism as an instrument of foreign policy and takes definitive steps to go after terrorists.
"Unless and until they commit to doing those things, it's going to be difficult, I think, to get a significant - get our taxpayers to understand the logic of continuing to support a country that doesn't seem to be able to get its act together on that particular - those particular very logical points," Jones told the committee. (ANI)
