Notes of Concern…
…Jack Blair
$18 BILLION FOR OUR “FRIENDS” IN PAKISTAN
The United States since 2002, according to Wikipedia, has sent Pakistan almost $18 BILLION dollars in aid.
The BBC reports that former Pakistani president Musharaff said:
“ US military aid given to Pakistan during his tenure was used to strengthen defences against India. (The US gave $10bn dollars to Pakistan to fight the Taliban and aQaeda.”)
I guess the Secretary of State or the head of USAID forgot to mention that we needed some assurances the billions were actually being used to fight terrorism.
Every time someone talks about providing medical care in our country to a larger group of our citizenry, or rebuilding our failing infrastructure, or educating more of our children through the university level, I suggest he review the total outlay in foreign aid per year and consider how those billions might better be used at home.
Pakistan is only one example, albeit the most recent, of the outrageous robbery of the U.S. treasury. It is our elected and appointed officials who are GIVING this money away. This is one of the worst investments ever made. No banker in his right mind would make loans, let alone gifts, to people with these kinds of records.
For those of you who look at foreign aid as a charitable hand out to people around the world who are poorer and more needy, I say “get a grip.”
Recently we read how Khadafy (libya) and Mubarak (Egypt) and others had billions stashed away in foreign bank accounts. You can bet much of that money came to them directly from the good old USA
Osama bin Laden builds the biggest house and walled compound in a suburb just miles from Pakistan’s equivalent of West Point.
On top of the compound he places barbed wire.
The city in which the compound sits is the social place for the officers from the military institution. Bin Laden felt so safe and secure he did not even maintain bodyguards.
But not to worry! President Obama has announced we will investigate.
Pakistan has announced they will investigate.
Osama’s lifestyle and safety could only have been guaranteed by the government and/or military of Pakistan-those to whom we gave BILLIONS for their friendship, help and consideration.
Lawrence Wright, writing in the New Yorker Magazine, commented recently:
“Pakistan, however, is one of the most anti-American countries in the world, and a covert sponsor of terrorism. Politically and economically, it verges on being a failed state. And, despite Pakistani avowals to the contrary, America's worst enemy, Osama bin Laden, had been hiding there for years-in strikingly comfortable circumstances
Any one who wishes to take the time to study the foreign aid outlay of this country to nations just like Pakistan over a decade will find hundreds of BILLIONS of dollars being regularly sent to a group of unsavory characters with no audit and no double checking. To audit or double check would be bad form. It would suggest a lack of trust.
If Wall Street investment bankers made investments with this kind of return none of them would have jobs.
If you think our aid is helping the poor, the needy or the hungry, smack yourself upside the head, take a cold shower, and revisit the numbers.
If these sorts of shenanigans do not make you angry then like “sheep to the slaughter” you are abetting the foolishness of our federal government.
If you are angry, then you need to join with others and bring this foolishness to an end.
