Pathetic US support for Pakistan Army: Supply chain empty

Posted on October 29, 2009 by Moin Ansari

The US support for what it calls its most important ally in the world is worse than pathetic. The Pakistanis are trying to clear up the spillover from the American mess in Afghanistan with bare knuckles and their own meager resources. History is being repeated again. The last time, after the defeat of the USSR, the Americans simply packed up and left. This time they have been there for the best part of a decade and seem to be digging a deeper hole for themselves every day.

The grand success of the Pakistan Army in Swat was a result of the bravery of the soldiers, the stamina of the entire nation and most importantly the uprightness of the people of Swat who sacrificed much to defeat the foreign mercenaries in the Malakand Agency.

A recent ‘leaked story” in the New York Times tries to gloss over the facts and bend the truth. If one were to read the headlines of the newspaper it seems like an avalanche of US Aid is pouring into Pakistan. Nothing could be father than the truth. Even if one takes the numbers listed in the Eric Schmitt story one can see the egregious misuse of superlatives to describe miniscule aid delivery to Pakistan.

The story once (as in other Schmitt stories) again falsifies and obfuscates the reality about the aid that is being sent to Pakistan. The rhetoric of $12 billion in US Aid to Pakistan is absolute crock and utter nonsense. In fact $5 billion is actual reimbursement for facilities used and logistics provided. This is pennies on the Dollar. Pakistan “gets” (actually gets only a portion of this) $650 million per year while the US spends $30 billion per year in Afghanistan. The other anomaly about the “aid” delivery is clarified by American analysts as follows. 50% of that “Aid to Pakistan” is spent on American consulting (for Americans) and is actually should be labeled the “Obama stimulus package for Americans” (advertised as “Aid to Pakistan” for accounting purposes) because it helps the US economy more than it helps the Pakistani economy. 25% of the “Aid to Pakistan” is spent on logistics. Only about $150 million per annum actually makes it to the Ambassador’s favorite NGO.

Beneath their official silence, many senior Pakistani military officials seethe at the months, or even years, of delay by the Pentagon in delivering promised hardware and troop reimbursements. They also gripe that the United States is denying them the best technology, like Predator drones or Apache helicopter gunships.

Shuja Nawaz, director of the South Asia Center of the Atlantic Council, a nonprofit policy and research group, sharply criticized the Obama administration in an essay on the organization’s Web site last week. “Pakistan still does not have all the weapons or assistance that it needs to do the job right,” he wrote. The New York Times. U.S. Speeds Aid to Pakistan to Fight Taliban. By ERIC SCHMITT Published: October 28, 2009. Jane Perlez contributed reporting from Islamabad, Pakistan.

Then they wonder why they Anti-Americanism is on the rise in Pakistan!

It takes choppers to fight a counter-insurgency or any war. Imagine the Vietnam war without choppers. The Pakistani Army needs 200 helicopters. Sending 10 Russian-built Mi-17 troop transport helicopters is less than adequate to fight a war.It has been requesting 100 Chinook, and 100 Apache helicopters for about 9 years now. Parts of Pakistani Cobra choppers have been in limbo and delayed for months and years. None have been delivered. Dispatching obsolete arcane choppers from US junk yards is a joke. Sending arcane Russian Equipment to Pakistan is the height of hubris and arrogance. The Pakistan Frontier Corps needs 150,000 latest machine guns, 100,000 night vision glasses, 100,000 bullet proof vests, and 20,000 MARVS. The Pakistani Air Force needs 25 Predator drones that can keep a 24/7 vigil on the Afghan/Pakistani border and keep track of the machinations of the Indian Consulates who are directing mercenaries across the international border into Pakistan.

The inventory of parts sent to Pakistan tells a woeful story of benign neglect and utter incompetence and perhaps deliberate foot dragging. Pakistan has a 100,000 strong Frontier Constabulary that is supposed to take care of police duties handling the spillover of the war. The FC (National Guard/Police Force type of outfit) was built to take care of minor robberies and kidnapping, not a raging war by a superpower. The FC should have been upgraded to a fighting force a years ago. Pakistani requests for arms have been met with stonewalling and silence. to make matters worse the same US generals who have been negligent in not providing arms to Pakistan then turn around and blame Pakistan for the defeat and utter failure of armed-to-the-teeth US forces in Afghanistan. Jane Parlez and Eric Schmitt of the New York Times brag about the miniscule aid that makes it way to the Pakistanis as if this was a Niagara fall of arms flowing down from the river of American largesse and magnanimity.

Included in that package is nearly $13 million in electronic eavesdropping equipment to intercept militants’ cellphone calls. In July, the Pentagon supplied Pakistan with 200 night vision goggles, 100 day/night scopes, more than 600 radios and 9,475 sets of body armor

The other major component that is waging the war is the Pakistan Army’s Frontier Corps which has been requesting Night surveillance gadgets, FM jamming equipment, and bullet proof vests. The list of equipment sent covers less than a very very small percentage of the soldiers. It is ironic that the militants and mercenaries carry the latest American and Indian arms and have no shortage of equipment.

The US Army with all its finger-pointing and veiled threats of “existential threats” has not come up with the right equipment (quality and quantity) for Pakistan which is a Major Non-Nato Ally (MNNA). The US is spending $30 billion in Afghanistan. It can only spare $500 million for arms (most of it spent on USSR vintage equipment made in Russia) to the Pakistani Army—the frontline force that has suffered more casualties from the Afghan war than any other country on the planet.

Then they wonder why they hate us!

Ms. Hillary Clinton in a recent interview to Dawn says “that we need to do a better job of selling ourselves (American ideas)”. Mr. Holbrooke also thinks that it is a sales pitch problem. If one looks at the statements of Admiral Mullen, General Petraeus, and even John Kerry, they use words and phrases which are anathema to most Pakistanis. Secretary or State Hillary Clinton’s should herself take some sensitivity courses on Pakistan and learn some manners. Her entire administration should also go to classes held by Ms. Manners. It is not a “sales pitch problem”—it is a lack of credibility problem.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton acknowledged the frustrations in an interview this week with Dawn, a Pakistani daily newspaper, before arriving on a trip to Pakistan.

“We both have bureaucracies,” Mrs. Clinton said. “We know how it is sometimes that things get delayed or they’re slower than we want, but we’re really trying to accelerate everything we can to help the Pakistani military.” Mrs. Clinton did not provide any details.The New York Times. U.S. Speeds Aid to Pakistan to Fight Taliban. By ERIC SCHMITT Published: October 28, 2009

The “red carpet” that awaited the arrival of Ms. Hillary Clinton was the ocean of Pakistani blood spilt on the roads of Peshawar. Many Pakistanis are leery of the the Blackwater/Xe and Dyncorp mercenaries who have been identified in Islamabad and Peshawar and the media blames the US mercenaries for the spate of bombings on Pakistani civilians. No one in Islamabad believes that the attack on the Islamic University was carried out by Muslims. Most Pakistani analysts (except those who are on the CIA payroll) rubbish the theory that the attacks on Pakistan are indigenous. Even the more “Catholic than the Pope” Interior Minister, Mr. Rehman Malik admitted that almost all terror attacks in Pakistan have an Indian hand in it. Pakistan is not the only victim of CIA/RAW terror—Iran has also lodged the same complaint against the UK/US and Mossad agents.

On the one hand Pakistan is a major ally, on the other hand it is not given military equipment to fight the American mess. The much heralded “Aid to Pakistan” is too little too late. The US wasted $143 Billion in Afghanistan with no visible results. It spent $605 Billion in Iraq. It offered $43 billion in aid to Turkey just to allow it access to Iraq. Turkey turned it down. The US gave a Trillion Dollars in grant to Israel with no conditions.  

The US has hired some great sales people like Pervez Hoodbhoy, Ikram Sehgal and Rashid Ahmed. By overselling America they have lost all credibility in Pakistan. The US sales pitch is being broadcasted on Geo as Voice of America and on Dawn.com via the Fifth Column. In actual fact, the “sales pitch” for America is having a counter effect. Pakistanis simply tune out and flip the channel when American acolytes start their verbal prostitution.

If the US really wanted to help Pakistan a squadron of brand spanking new F-35 could be transferred to the Pakistan Air Force. If President Obama really wanted to assist Pakistan, “the pitiful shoe string budget” for Pakistan would be expanded and NATO F-22s could be moved over to the PAF. If Secretary of State Hillary Clinton wanted to assist the Pakistanis 200 choppers which do useless drills off the sunny coast of California (and spend their time transporting marines to Camp Pendleton etc) would have already be in the hands of the Pakistan Army.

President Bush announced the Reconstruction Opportunity Zones (ROZ) many many years ago. the bill still languishes in Congress and may see the light of day early next year. If the US really wanted to help Pakistan it would have established 1000 MASH type of hospitals to help the wounded and the disabled. If the US really wanted to help, it would have brought in 5000 pre-fabricated schools to Pakistan which would have allowed the war affected kids to learn about business and entrepreneurship instead of bombs and EIDs

Filed under: Current Affairs

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