If 140 characters can stir up a storm, then Donald Trump’s latest tweet surely take the trophy for the best. Yes, in a sensation Twitter attackagainst Pakistan, he announced,
“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, thinking of our leaders as fools. They give safe haven to the terrorists we hunt in Afghanistan, with little help. No more!”
Quite understandably it has taken people and policy makers by surprise. The US President is likely to cut 28% of foreign aids and this will definitely have an impact on recipienets like Pakistan. Sources claim that 60% of the planned $40 billion foreign aid this year is likely to be spend for economic and developmental cause. 40% is seen allocated for security reasons. The top US aid recepients include:
- Afghanistan: Over $4.5 billion and 8,400 US troops deployed
- Israel: $3.1 billion
- Egypt: $1.4 billion
- Iraq: $1.1 billion
- Jordan: $1 billion
- Pakistan: $742 million
According to reports, Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania and Ethiopia each received more than $500 million. In fact if you go through details available, the US Aid tracker indicates US has spent over $16 billion since 2002 in Pakistan. This is also around the time, the US war on terror started.
This entire period has seen a spree on terror attacks on India and primarily funded and conceptualised by Pakistani sources. Perhaps the 26/11 attacks in three Mumbai hotels were the most gory.
The expectations is that Trump’s budgets are going to be more hard hitting than Obama’s. The question is if this Tweet from Trump an indication of future trend? Will the United States be that successful in pulling off the tap of unending funds so easily from Pakistan. If so, will that be adequate enough to gradually stop the terror activities?
Well, that’s perhaps the biggest question?But all said and done, US President accepting the Pakistani deceit on a global platform can’t be ignored. After all didn’t they say the first step towards solving a problem is accepting that it exists.
Leave a reply