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| Tuesday November 11, 2008 |
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$10bn not enough Bilal Shahid An assistance of $10 billion as compared to $653bn for Iraq and $172bn for Afghanistan was given to Pakistan since 2001. Much hue and cry is being raised by the US and western media on this ‘peanut’ amount. An unending blame game has started and the noose is being tightened against Pakistan. Our media also gets influenced by this propaganda and has started questioning about this money. The $10bn aid was given to Pakistan for four fields. Almost 56% of the US aid has gone to the Coalition Support Funds (CSF). These funds are given to reimburse the Government of Pakistan for its efforts against the Global War on Terror. The 18% has been spent on security assistance, 16% has gone to budgetary support and this money is supposed to provide macroeconomic stability and to free up funds for social spending. The remaining 9% has been given for development and humanitarian assistance. Gen. David Petraeus, the Centcom chief, too, is of the view that more assistance must be given to Pakistan. “Clearly, we have to provide additional assistance to the Pakistani government, which is developing its counterinsurgency strategy, the approach it is going to take for dealing with FATA, significant problem that they have inherited and that was causing extraordinary violence in their country.” The Bush administration has shown they can’t eliminate or reduce terrorism, and the bombing of civilians in Afghanistan and pushing the terrorists to FATA is not a solution. Similarly bombing the tribal areas and moving the extremists to urban areas of Pakistan is a dangerous strategy. In the seventh year of operations since 9/11, America has failed in Iraq as well as in Afghanistan. The cost of war is a major concern due to which the US economy has started melting. Being the superpower, America will never admit it has failed. As Defence Secretary Robert Gates said, “We cannot afford to accept failure in the GWOT”. Pakistan, a frontline state, has been made a scapegoat to hide the incompetence of NATO-US forces. The total funding for GWOT (2001-2009) as per Congressional Research Service (CRS) report of July 2008 is $859bn: $653bn for Operation Iraqi Freedom, $172bn for Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan – with a small amount of other counterterrorism operations including Pakistan, $20bn for enhanced security of bases and $.05bn unallocated. The budget for FY 2008-09 for Iraq and Afghanistan is $160bn - $28bn for Iraq and $32bn for Afghanistan. Similarly, as per US Department of Defense, the monthly average expenditure on pay and contract are $12.1bn - $9.8bn for Iraq and $2.3bn for Afghanistan. The average annual cost per soldier including operational cost against GWOT was $780,000 in 2006. On the contrary only $111,000 per soldier are being received as incremental charges by Pakistan. According to CRS estimates, the average monthly expenditure grew from $6.1bn in 2004 to $12.3bn in 2007 and is growing further. A monthly per-head cost of a soldier comes as $85640 in Iraq, $76870 in Afghanistan and only $900 for Pakistan. Pakistan is only getting the maintenance or incremental charges which are very nominal and all the expenditures like pay and allowances, gratuity, life insurance and compensation – Rs1 million is paid to Shaheed’s family – are paid from the defence budget. America has raised the gratuity for its soldiers from $12,240 to $100,000 and life insurance from $250,000 to $409,000. An amount of $15.3bn (2004-2008) has been spent by the Americans on the training and equipment of Afghan forces and more than $20bn on Iraqi forces but only $5.64bn for Pakistani forces who are bearing the major brunt, who killed and captured high value targets which neither Iraq nor Afghanistan did. If we calculate the total spending which is being incurred on coalition forces, it is much more than this peanut aid given by the US. Pakistan must ask the US to provide the same as well as equipment which is being given to Afghanistan. It is strange that the root cause of every problem is being traced in FATA but money and tools to combat the menace of terrorism are held back. Can FC with obsolete guns and equipment fight al-Qaeda which has no dearth of money and is well equipped with modern weapons? That’s why the FC is suffering heavily. Pakistan has suffered the most as compared to any other country in this war. More than 3,000 people, including security forces personnel have lost their lives, 8,600 got injured and property worth billions of dollars destroyed throughout the country, especially in FATA. The stock market crashed; economic activities have come to a grinding halt, no foreign investment is taking place, tourism finished, millions of people have become homeless or jobless and the burden of two million Afghan refugees is on our fragile economy. Yet the US wants us to do more. As per briefing given by a senior security officer, more than 117,000 troops with thousands of vehicles, tanks, guns, armed personnel carriers, Cobra gunship helicopters and jet aircraft are engaged in operations against the terrorists. Thousands of rounds of major weapons and millions of bullets have been consumed to suppress the fire of terrorism but still question of $10bn is raised. Pakistan has lost almost everything; there is no peace, no safe place, no economy and still it may take more than hundreds of billions of dollars to regain what has been lost. What America has spent in this GWOT in Iraq and Afghanistan is an eye opener, not only for the Americans but for the Pakistanis also. We need to safeguard our interests and should not carry away with the propaganda by the West. The US doesn’t seem to be serious in finishing the GWOT and wants to keep the pot boiling. When America was serious in stopping Communism and Soviets’ march towards warm water, arms and ammunition were sent to Pakistan on war footing. Now, the only thing which comes out from America is the blame game, accusing Pakistan of not doing enough. Had the Bush regime been serious in eliminating terrorism, it could have given Pakistan thousands of M-16 rifles, few predators, communication equipment, night vision goggles, IED jamming devices and gunship helicopters. The military aid to Pakistan is so pathetic that it is not even worth mentioning. More than half of the aid is paid back to USA in logistic issues – consultation charges and a peanut available to Pakistan can’t be used with any semblance of efficacy. There is a lot of rhetoric but no substantial arms and equipment to combat the terrorism. FC, a paramilitary force, is built to maintain law and order in the province and it was never trained to fight insurgency. It neither has the requisite arms nor the equipment to fight militants or mercenaries who are trained and armed by foreign forces. Pakistan is being pressured to “do more”. Do more with what? Just 303 rifles and World War-II equipment? The CRS report is a good document to ascertain as to what priorities are set by the Bush administration. Pakistan’s name, which is a frontline state, does not appear in the 62-page CRS Report – may be because the $10bn amount is too small to mention. Pakistan has done a lot and suffered the most. If the US is serious in eliminating terrorism, it would have to concentrate on the development work in Pakistan, especially FATA. America has spent billions of dollars for Afghanistan and its forces which have done nothing except harbouring the narco-lords besides levelling baseless charges against Pakistan. If the world in general and USA in particular is serious in fighting the menace of terrorism, then extensive development work will have to be started. Small and medium industries need to be set up, schools and colleges be established, hospital and healthcare centres be provided, road and rail network be built, power stations and new dams be constructed, especially for the people of FATA. The “do more” mantra, bombings, killings of the innocent people and blame game will never yield any result. Pakistan should be given massive aid of 40 to 50 billion dollars per year as was done in the Marshall Plan. Bruce Riedel, former CIA official and advisor to three US Presidents on South Asia and Middle East (now appointed as advisor on Pakistan by Obama) also recommended that a Martial Plan be prepared to help out Pakistan and Afghanistan. If the US wants to defeat the extremism, they have to provide money, weapons and equipment on war footing. The US has already wasted trillions of dollars on GWOT, if part of it had been spent in Pakistan; the war on terrorism would have been won much before. The time is running out. The fire that is burning Pakistan may also engulf the whole world. The weakening economies world over is just a prelude. |