PrintMay 1, 2009
Pakistan doesn't waste a crisis
Obama and the Congressional Democrats are being Allinskyed, as Pakistan panics them into sending more money with fewer strings attached. Candidate Obama may have pummeled the Bush Administration for sending $12 billion to Pakistan with too little control, but let the Taliban get close to Islamabad and the dollar spigot may start gushing.
C. Rajah Mohan writes in the Indian Express:
As a panicked Washington loosens its purse strings, there is growing pressure on the Obama Administration and the Democratic leadership in the US Congress to drop all serious conditions on new aid to Pakistan. ...All this talk of conditional aid may now be water under the bridge amidst the sense of a looming crisis in Pakistan. Senator John Kerry, who is now the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has openly argued against putting too many conditions on aid to Pakistan.
True, as Mohan notes, in the 100 days press conference the President spoke of Pakistan getting over its "obsession" with India, but like me, he is skeptical that this is anything more than more Obama wishful thinking.
Hat tip: Ram Narayanan
