Okay so let me get this straight, you went from saying and I quote you now:
@Jungibaaz @Tameem
Blah blahh....
By some estimates as much as 75% of social welfare and education aid is also stolen away for use in support of terrorist thugs.
I've skimmed through all the links you provided, where is the proof or source for the above statement, instead you have provided links as to how some aid is diverted to higher military acquisition, as is our right, and how some of it is shifted around by shifty politicians and generals. This we already I know. It is not new to me that big names and fat cats often siphon off funds meant not for them, this is not news to us.
Where, oh where is the proof for the part in bold.
I am more than capable to find some links on google that make the case that Pak should stop receiving aid and how aid in general should be lessened, and I know the arguments for that, I also happened to know what happens to the aid when it gets here. You say it's wasted away in corruption? I agree. It's spent on India centric weapons acquisition? I say of course, I agree. But to say it's used to support terrorist thugs. I want a source or I want your rubbish off the forum.
Now gimme a source for THAT, specifically, and quote it. And refer back to this quote.
Also, now for a little explanation on the military acquisition, it does not surprise me that funds are diverted. I want you to note, there are more than two kinds of aid granted to Pakistan. The first is economic aid (many secondary categories under this), the second is military aid and the third falls under it's own category, the Coalition Support Fund. Now the CSF is reimbursement, it is paying Pakistan back for it's role in the war on terror, that includes the reimbursement for costs of war, troop deployment, forward base operations, fuel, vehicles, losses, ammunition, you name it. We've spent billions more on the war than we've received, you can bet that is the case. We fight our war not on the basis of when funds are arriving but continuously, and if you want it to continue, you have to keep filling the empty coffers even if the money is siphoned off. Now is it unreasonable for Pakistan to maintain a certain level of defensive ability against India? Of course, it will do so, with or without US aid and assistance, but it has had to since about 2004, divert funds from weapons acquisitions front on to
costs of war. The link I give you here is old, and dates back to 2011, the damage is actually underestimated in that article and is now far greater. So Pakistan isn't really 'diverting' more like trying it's best to fill the gaping holes the war has left in other troubling areas.
Now that we're talking about history, let's talk about the Harvard document you posted here, the only real thing that I disagree with in there is it's many concerns about the effectiveness of the Pakistani counter insurgency doctrine and aid. This article dates back to 2009. Ask any reasonably informed Pakistani member the true context of the document you dug up which is now pushing 6 years old... This was at the time from where in 2008, the Taliban had reached the Swat valley. In this context the bleak nature and lack of optimism of the document is well placed, but today, things are very different.
This map isn't exactly accurate, and misses out many key details, overestimates taliban influence ins some areas, but this is KPK province probably around 2008. The context of the document you provided. KPK it's an entire province and it makes up a huge chunk of land.
source:
http://www.longwarjournal.org/
In this map, the situation looks dire, because it was, hence the document you provided is given proper context, however, today, for you to deny that any progress has been made... See the above map? Most of it would now be green, possibly a few of the red ones would be yellow, and there would be NO red parts, only contested control. Only in summer last year, was the final stronghold of the taliban, North Waziristan attacked by the security forces.
Operation Zarb e Azb, you can find threads about it on this forum. This was the last stronghold of the taliban and it is now being cleared.
And we did this on a tight budget, with peanuts occasionally flicked our way. In fact, before 2009, it was quoted that $18 billion dollars were given by Congress to Pakistan, also quoted in your links, this is false, $18 billion were proposed, the harvard link of yours takes the proposed numbers and parades them as final amount delivered, this is utterly false:
By the own source that the author used from Appendix III, the CSF is quotes and only two values are shows, requested and initially allowed, not delivered.
Also, remember, this is CSF, it is what we are entitled to for our support, for the use of our airbases, for the use of Karachi Harbour, for the intel co-operation, and use of Pakistani infrastructure, and this dates back to 2001-2002. it becomes a whole other story when we get involved in the war itself.
So, of the funds that are requested, a percentage is denied, and the figure is reduced, then there is congressional approval and obligated funds figure further cut, and then lastly there is how much is actually released as funds, and this is a hugely reduced. Also, the very last remainign parts of it are usually used by US consultancy firms and contractors.
So only a mere fraction of the proposed peanuts actually get to Pakistan, and then, some is taken by corruption, a lot of it is used to cover up, huge gaping deficits ran by the war, and it's economic impact, some of it is used to maintain a level of defence with India. Is it any wonder then, that people are stupidly led to believe that if $18 billion was quoted,
all of it was misspent, no that's a farce, only a fraction of it got here, and it was nothing even to begin with.
So, this entire argument of aid being misused is a joke to begin with, the only misuse is the corruption by the Elite of Pakistan and the legal corruption that occurs in the US before it gets here. And what is promised... it is pittance compared to the actual costs to Pakistan, and what is delivered is a mere speck of said pittance.
And yet, we've done more in our own war, than all the forces of the West, in their trillions of dollars combined managed while fighting a civil war as a third world nation.
