Justin Raimondo on the US Pakistan Aid Bill

Justin Raimondo is a well known anti-war libertarian associated with antiwar.com. I have included just a few small excerpts from a much longer article on the bad effects of the US aid bill to Pakistan. He also analyses the purpose of the aid which is quite different than what it is portrayed as. Basically it is to reward the venal politicians associated with Zardari for following US demands such as increasing the anti-terror campaign in the tribal areas. The U.S. worries too about the role of the military who may very well step in should the population finally decide they have had enough of Zardari, his corruption, and complete support for U.S. policies. The result however has been to inflame anti-US feelings because of all the strings attached to the aid that are meant to ensure these purposes are achieved. As usual the U.S. expresses surprise. If it is genuine this is a sign that U.S. officials in Pakistan are clueless and I doubt that but it is always possible.

Raimondo perhaps overstates his case. In some cases the US has had success in trying to buy people to carry out their policy aims. Paying former Sunni militants in Anbar in Iraq did manage to successfully neutralise Al Qaeda in the province while also turning insurgents into government supporters. However, more recent events have shown that there are difficulties now the former militias are to be paid by the Iraq government and integrated into regular forces. There are even signs of violence that may be caused by Al Qaeda operatives.

The U.S. is using front contractors to cover up what they are up to. Pakistan obviously had some idea what was up and no doubt this was the reason for the raid on the contractor. Obviously the Pakistan military wants to keep its options open. Even though it is very much dependent on the US for supplies it also wants to keep some distance and independence so that on occasion it may act counter to what the US military aid is meant to do. The US trusts the military and intelligence services much less than Zardari who can always be bought. These excerpts are from antiwar.com

""DynCorp, the U.S. mercenary organization, is allied with a local partner, Inter-Risk, run by a former Pakistani military officer, and they have been given the lucrative U.S. government contract to provide security services to the U.S. embassy there. A recent raid by the Pakistani police on Inter-Risk facilities turned up what the Washington Times reports as "sophisticated weaponry that appears more suited to Special Forces commandos, raising questions about its real role in a country facing a serious terrorist threat."

The context it which the raid occurred provides plenty of grist for the anti-American rumor mill. The physical expansion of the U.S. embassy brings it nearly on a par with our giant Vatican-sized diplomatic compound in Iraq. One Pakistani news outlet reports that the U.S. is in the process of spending about $1 billion for the upgrading of their Islamabad presence, including an expenditure of $405 million for the reconstruction and refurbishment of the main embassy building; $111 million for a new complex for accommodating 330 personnel; and $197 million for constructing about 250 housing units on 18 acres of newly-acquired land. ..........

Add to this greatly-expanded visible footprint a less visible one: the infiltration of special forces commando units in the guise of "protecting" the embassy and other U.S. interests in the country. Until now the U.S. has been walking a very fine line with the Pakistani government, launching unmanned drone attacks on alleged terrorist targets, taking out a very large chunk of "collateral damage" in the process. Relations between the U.S. and Pakistan, never that good to begin with, have recently been marked by escalating mutual suspicion, and the raid on DynCorp/Inter-Risk raises these tensions to a new level. Precluded from openly invading Pakistani territory, the U.S. is using every excuse to quietly arm a "private" army of security contractors, flooding the country with weapons and cash.

Pakistan's political leaders will make a great show of caviling over the tripled aid package, grandstanding for their domestic audience - and then they'll accept it, because the opportunities for corruption are too rich to be wasted. In the meantime, this cornucopia of aid will achieve the exact opposite of its ostensible purpose, bringing us closer to the day when Pakistan's alleged "crisis" - a crisis largely of our own making - will culminate in catastrophe.

And that's the story of U.S. foreign policy in the post-9/11 era - a veritable perpetual motion machine of mishaps and mistaken assumptions, fueled by corruption and super-charged with a peculiarly American brand of hubris.""""