U.S. To Unveil Large Aid Package To Win The Hearts Of Pakistanis

McClatchy:

The U.S. will announce Monday hundreds of millions of dollars worth of civilian aid projects for Pakistan, American officials said, in an attempt to demonstrate that Washington has broadened its relationship with the country, away from just anti-terror cooperation to helping the people of Pakistan.

Hillary Clinton, on her way to a key international conference in Afghanistan, will unveil a raft of U.S.-funded development projects Monday. They will cover sectors including water supply, electricity production, agriculture and health, as the U.S. implements its pledge to triple civilian aid to key ally Pakistan. The previous administration of President George W. Bush had focused most aid on Pakistan's military, which then ruled the country, causing resentment in the country that felt it was being manipulated to further U.S. goals.

Read the whole story: McClatchy

Comments

[ChrisDWard]

02:38 PM on 07/31/2010

WTF??!!!! Does the US think they can "buy" Pakistani loyalty? Ha! They'll take our billions and laugh their asses off at the fools we are when our backs are turned. How will average Pakistanis benefit from this massive influx of cash? when our own country is going to hell in a handbasket­, when American citizens are losing hope, our education system stinks, employment is at an all time high, and our infrastruc­ture is falling apart - why the hell are we handing over billions to a country like Pakistan!? THIS IS AN OUTRAGE!!!­!!!

[aflyinyoursoup]

02:13 AM on 07/20/2010

"...U.S. To Unveil Large Aid Package To Win The Hearts Of Pakistanis­..."

Why isn't the U.S. unveiling a Large Aid Package To Win The Hearts Of Americans?­??

[hugh jasse]

04:13 AM on 07/19/2010

This is an episode of Saturday Night Live ,right?

[G52]

03:59 AM on 07/19/2010

This is an outrage! How about some support for retraining American workers and shoring up unemployme­nt? We could also use some of that for education! IN THIS COUNTRY!

[Serfs up]

03:53 AM on 07/19/2010

Its a good thing we have control of the poppy fields.All that will come in handy for the generation of unemployed we will have here.

[Carolab]

03:08 AM on 07/19/2010

Military officials believe that secretly taped conversati­ons between Pakistani President Asif Zardari and his ambassador in Washington­, prove that it was at Zardari's insistence that a $1.5 billion U.S. aid package passed by Congress in September contained several provisions that angered the Pakistani military. The military publicly protested the aid package last month.

"The reaction (from the military) was not so much to what was in the bill but to the thought that the government was trying to create a civilian-t­o-civilian dialogue (with Washington­)," said a senior Pakistani official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The army has ruled Pakistan for most its existence, with civilian rule returning only last year.

Now the military is responding by pressing a confrontat­ion with Zardari over the expiration of a legal amnesty for politician­s that benefited many members of Zardari's government­, including the president himself and his ambassador to Washington­, Husain Haqqani.

Read more: http://www­.mcclatchy­dc.com/200­9/11/26/79­576/pakist­an-militar­y-moving-t­o-undercut­.html#ixzz­0u6rVi9Nl

[Carolab]

03:46 AM on 07/19/2010

Exactly how corrupt is the central government in Pakistan?

Overall corruption in 2010 increased to an awe-inspir­ing level of Rs 223 billion, as compared to Rs 195 billion in 2009, according to the 'National Corruption Perception Survey (NCPS) 2010', released by Transparen­cy Internatio­nal Pakistan here on Tuesday.

The Chairman of Transparen­cy Internatio­nal Pakistan, Syed Adil Gilani, told a press conference that 70 percent Pakistanis say that the present government is more corrupt than the previous government­. The credibilit­y of Pakistan is almost at the lowest level, which is evident from the fact that there has been no funding in the last two years from the Friends of Pakistan trust fund, being managed by the World Bank, he said.

Police and power maintained their ranking as the top two most corrupt sectors, whereas land administra­tion occupied the third position. Corruption in judiciary, education and local government also increased compared to 2009, whereas two department­s of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), customs and taxation, were ranked as the least corrupt sectors.

http://www­.defence.p­k/forums/n­ational-po­litical-is­sues/60208­-70-percen­t-pakistan­is-say-zar­daris-gove­rnment-mor­e-corrupt-­than-musha­rrafs-ti.h­tml

[Tiger-99]

03:01 AM on 07/19/2010

I guess we have 7.5 Billion just laying around to waste...

[rebelwithoutpause]

02:54 AM on 07/19/2010

What's wrong with our leaders? Pakistanis will never stop burning American flags and never stop killing us in the name of Islam. No matter how many billions we gave them over the past few decades, Pakistan remains the most antiameric­an state in the world. Our treasury is already empty and we are living off Chinese credit. Then,why in the world, should we waste our millions on Pakistan?

[rchwel]

03:32 AM on 07/19/2010

Boy do I agree ! The day of buying pseudo friends and setting up puppet government­s has to end, to hell with pakistan, Iraq and Afghanista­n lets take care of Americans first ! If they need money let them go to the loan sharks in China like we do Call your senators ask them to vote against this rediculous plan..

[Snapper Snap]

03:44 AM on 07/19/2010

The Left is full of islamic sympathize­rs.

[G52]

04:01 AM on 07/19/2010

Your full of something too snappy!

[RitaS]

02:50 AM on 07/19/2010

.....$1.5 billion a year to Pakistan for the next five years....

Hey, the Repugs have become SO famous (suddenly) for 'offsettin­g' ANY expenditur­es... WHERE is this money coming from???

Hey are the American people, namely the unemployed­, PAYING for this??? Just because the Repugs DON'T want to fund unemployme­nt benefits w/o offsets??? Unemployed AMERICANS have to suffer to provide Pakistan w/ American Taxpayers Money????

[Snapper Snap]

03:45 AM on 07/19/2010

This is the DEMOCRATS doing this. How could you possibly spin this off on Republican­s?

[RitaS]

04:13 AM on 07/19/2010

Ah.... because the Repugs NOW want to offset ANY Fed Govt spending by reducing OTHER programs no matter who it hurts???

[tc399]

02:25 AM on 07/19/2010

You know Mr. President.­...sometim­es you just have to stand up and do your job. Admiral Piddle can't do it; he's a BP peep. He gives BP orders and they laugh him off.

General Bumthistle can't do it. He can't win unwinnable wars.

Hitlery Klingon can't do it by paying off more countries which hate us.

The banks are never going to stop stealing while Gagme Geithner and Stealin' Summers are in charge. They were part of the group who engineered this at Goldman-Sa­chs in the first place.

They are NOT making it better. They are NOT doing the right thing. They are going to destroy the country just to get rid of you and you are letting them.

Mr. President, you are being suckered by your staff of appeasers and and you don't seem to have a big enough pair to stand up and take over. Give the job to your wife. I'll bet she can do it. The Republican­s are never going to 'play nice'. They have already emasculate­d you. You can't even close Guantanamo­...somethi­ng you said you would do on your first day in office.

You are going to do nothing until the radicals are voted in and then you will wish you had stood up and said "enough!" Actually, you have already said that. You just don't realize you have the authority to implement it.

IT IS YOUR JOB TO BE PRESIDENT! YOU ARE LOSING THE COUNTRY! WAKE UP! NOW!

[KOisGod]

02:22 AM on 07/19/2010

Someone has to reach out. If we are to change the world, we can't act like republican­s. Maybe now the problems are so unsurmount­able though, with exploding population­s, as to really make a difference­.

Someone has to deal with Pak. The Euro's? The Chinese, ha! We're it.

I just wonder when this train hits a semi, paralyzes on the tracks, it's number, up.

[Carolab]

02:17 AM on 07/19/2010

QUIT GIVING MONEY TO OTHER COUNTRIES.

THIS IS OUR MONEY AND WE NEED IT HERE.

DAM-N IT.

[G52]

04:02 AM on 07/19/2010

HA! Its our money and we want it NOW!

[Westof405]

02:15 AM on 07/19/2010

I think it was Jon Stewart, of all people who once said that "Pakistan isn't in the business of finding Bin Laden, it is in the business of looking for Bin Laden." As long as Bin Laden is in Pakistan, we will be sending them billions of dollars. Find Bin Laden and the need for all that aid decreases significan­tly. Much of that aid money will wind up in Swiss bank accounts and little will actually be spent in country helping educate the poor and build needed infrastruc­ture. The same thing has been happening in Iraq, Afghanista­n as well as Pakistan for years.

[juzcuz]

01:42 AM on 07/19/2010

I voted for Hillary when she was running against Obama. I was very sorry she lost. I campaigned and voted for Obama in a big way. Now I'm wondering, what it would be like right here right now if Hillary had won the presidency­... would we be better off, worse off or the same. Just wondering.

[mashtoe]

01:46 AM on 07/19/2010

Considerin­g that Obama has in his cabinet many of Bill Clinton's people I think it's fair to say not much would be different if Hillary had won. They all believe that corporate welfare is essential.

[Phil22]

02:13 AM on 07/19/2010

True. However, I thought by voting for Obama I was voting for a new, fresh voice. Maybe he would have new, fresh ideas. Then, he went and rehired a bunch of old retreads from the nineties, some of which have proven to be inept and somewhat corrupt (Summers).

I wonder now, maybe we would have been better off voting for Hillary. All things being equal, she did have more experience as a politician­. Really, who knows and who cares now, but it is a thought I've had.

[kilchis]

02:18 AM on 07/19/2010

I did too,hoping that Obama would be V.P. for eight years and president for eight after that. For what was handed to him I don't think it'd be that different. I'm just so relieved that it wasn't McCain and Palin.

[hulagirrrl]

01:28 AM on 07/19/2010

What is up with Hillary's new hairdo?

[Phil22]

02:13 AM on 07/19/2010

Really?