Testifying before Congress last month, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the United States would “reassess” its relationship with Pakistan.
Meeting protests from Pakistani officials, Blinken immediately backtracked and then praised Pakistan after meeting with his Pakistani counterpart on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly. As Deputy Secretary Wendy Sherman begins a two-day visit to Islamabad, her comments suggest business as usual. “We seek a strong partnership with Pakistan on counterterrorism,” she said. “Both of our countries have suffered terribly from the scourge of terrorism, and we look forward to cooperative efforts to eliminate all regional and global terrorist threats.”
Top line: The Biden administration will continue to pay the arsonist to be the firefighter.
The U.S. has paid dearly for this delusional strategy. Between 2002 and 2018, the U.S. gave Pakistan more than $33 billion. That equates to more than $100 for every American man, woman, and child. Whether that aid was civilian or military, neither Washington nor Pakistan have anything to show for it. Pakistan’s economy remains in tatters despite $11 billion given to restructure it. While Pakistan’s violation of its commitments continues, Biden has requested nearly $100 million for Pakistan in his 2022 budget request.
That the U.S. would provide such funds to Islamabad is all the more outrageous given recent Pandora Papers revelations. These showed that 700 Pakistani citizens, including two current Cabinet ministers, donors to Prime Minister Imran Khan, family members of Khan’s political allies, and top military officials had used the service to divert and stow away tens of millions of dollars. In effect, rather than pay for counterterrorism, U.S. aid has enabled the lavish lifestyles of the top brass who now celebrate the Taliban’s return.
Against this backdrop, Biden and Blinken should not assuage Pakistani feelings or continue to treat our finance of Pakistan as an entitlement. For the State Department to offer Pakistan one more chance in the hope that Islamabad will moderate the Taliban or assist counterterror is the diplomatic equivalent of Charlie Brown trusting Lucy to hold the football steady. Biden entered office as a foreign policy president, but his record to date is one of malaise and incompetence.
It need not be.
The president might salvage his legacy and help Pakistan in the long term with some tough love: Suspend aid until Khan fires those named in the Pandora Papers and recovers the funds from those no longer actively serving. The Biden administration should also insist that the Financial Action Task Force, the international body formed to counter international money laundering and terror finance that meets next week to consider Pakistan’s record, place the country on its blacklist. For its persistent and unresolved violations, Pakistan belongs on that blacklist alongside Iran and North Korea.
That Pakistan has provided demonstrably false information to the task force regarding the status of terrorists such as Sajid Mir, who is complicit in the deaths of Americans and dozens of others during the 2008 Mumbai attacks, should immediately disqualify Islamabad from receiving any benefit of the doubt. Frankly, Pakistan’s failure to come clean about its sheltering of Osama bin Laden and his successor Ayman al Zawahiri, as well as numerous Pakistani terrorists captured while fighting alongside the Taliban, should have landed Pakistan on the state sponsor of terror list a decade ago.
Blinken treats Congress with disdain when he makes empty promises he has no intention to keep. Sherman undercuts U.S. effectiveness with pleading sycophancy. Apologia for Pakistan should not be hardwired into our foreign policy.
It is time for both Democrats and Republicans, liberals and conservatives to say enough is enough. It is time to move the fundamental rethink of U.S. Pakistan policy from rhetorical to reality. Strip Pakistan of major non-NATO ally status. Designate Pakistan a terror sponsor. Put it on the Financial Action Task Force blacklist where it belongs.
Michael Rubin (@Mrubin1971) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential. He is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.
