President Trump bullying Pakistan is not only not going to work, it will backfire.
On Thursday, the State Department announced it is suspending all security aid in the amount of $255 million (out of a total of $778 million) to our ally in the subcontinent until the Pakistani government figures out what to do about terror groups like the Taliban and the Haqqani network residing in its borders.
While sending a message to the Pakistani government that “enough is enough” is understandable, how can a government possibly address and contain an issue like terrorism without receiving the adequate resources from the U.S.? Wouldn’t that make terrorism in Pakistan worse before it gets better?
It’s one thing to end all foreign aid to countries around the world in an effort to recommit resources to domestic issues. It’s completely different to target Pakistan specifically on terrorism because there’s a chance it might serve U.S. interests.
If the Trump administration’s logic in suspending foreign and security aid to Pakistan is based on the notion that it’s not doing enough to fight terrorism, there are other governments the U.S. provides aid to that have handled terrorism in a similar manner, if not, worse.
For one, Afghanistan, which receives the most foreign and security aid at over $5.1 billion from the U.S. Its government has done very little to actually root out extremism and terrorism, and it has put its trust solely in the U.S. to fix the problem.
Let’s be clear: The U.S. government should stop spending billions on foreign aid when there’s plenty of issues to take care of domestically. But, because we are spending this money, pulling security aid from Pakistan does not logically make sense. And, if anything, it further alienates the Pakistani government from ever cooperating with the U.S. That’s great news for terrorists, and terrible news for the good guys.
Siraj Hashmi is a commentary video editor and writer for the Washington Examiner.
