US repays Pakistan with aid
I wonder which state or states he will be plundering , to pay back President Pervez Musharraf, for Afganistan and Iraq, will probably be the poor of New Orleans.
Bronwen Maddox
October 12, 2005
PAKISTAN has been given a very visible reward for backing the US in its war on terror.
The Bush administration has pledged $US50million to help the earthquake disaster zone, joining at least 17 other countries in offering help.
But lest anyone should mistake this for a purely humanitarian gesture, US military officials were keen to make clear that it was also an expression of gratitude for favours rendered - and for those to come.
"Pakistan is one of our closest allies in the war on terror and we want to help them in this time of crisis," said Sergeant Marina Evans, a military spokeswoman in Kabul, as US forces in Afghanistan sent five Chinook transport helicopters and three Black Hawk helicopters to Pakistan.
"The terrorists make us out as the infidels, but this is not true, and we hope this mission will show that."
Others put it only a little more coyly.
Ryan Crocker, the US ambassador to Pakistan, said: "When crisis hits an ally, we step forward to help," adding that the size of the donation reflected the US's "long-term strategic relationship" with Pakistan.
This is earthquake diplomacy. The suffering caused by overwhelming natural disaster offers governments a chance to make a powerful gesture stripped of the history and troubles of their normal relations with each other.
That gesture can be very popular at home - as donations to victims of last December's Asian tsunami showed. It is a chance to thank allies, to refashion an image abroad, to mend fences or to humiliate enemies. Among the 90 countries that offered the US help after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, there were some who were hardly the US's greatest friends.
Cuba offered 1100 doctors, surely a gesture of mischief. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez offered aid and soldiers while criticising President George W.Bush for failing to protect the poor.
Iran offered 20 million barrels of oil and unspecified aid through the Red Crescent agency, should the US choose to lift sanctions (it didn't). While provocative in its demands about sanctions, that was also a reciprocal gesture of goodwill. The US had flown in emergency supplies after an earthquake hit the city of Bam in 2003. But it declined a similar offer after another earthquake early this year.
We have yet to see how the US aid is perceived by Pakistanis, but it appears a shrewd move by Washington, as well as a humane one. The US has provoked huge anger within Pakistan by the invasion of Afghanistan, even more than by the Iraq war.
Religious fundamentalist parties have built on that anger to undermine President Pervez Musharraf, and to control the governments of the western provinces on the Afghan border.
The visible demonstration of US support may have more effect on public scepticism than the money, suggests Rusul Bakhsh Rais, a political analyst and professor at the Lahore University of Management Sciences.
For the US, the only risk in the gesture may be the perception at home that it moved more quickly in Muzafferabad than it did in New Orleans.
The Times
Link Here
Bronwen Maddox
October 12, 2005
PAKISTAN has been given a very visible reward for backing the US in its war on terror.
The Bush administration has pledged $US50million to help the earthquake disaster zone, joining at least 17 other countries in offering help.
But lest anyone should mistake this for a purely humanitarian gesture, US military officials were keen to make clear that it was also an expression of gratitude for favours rendered - and for those to come.
"Pakistan is one of our closest allies in the war on terror and we want to help them in this time of crisis," said Sergeant Marina Evans, a military spokeswoman in Kabul, as US forces in Afghanistan sent five Chinook transport helicopters and three Black Hawk helicopters to Pakistan.
"The terrorists make us out as the infidels, but this is not true, and we hope this mission will show that."
Others put it only a little more coyly.
Ryan Crocker, the US ambassador to Pakistan, said: "When crisis hits an ally, we step forward to help," adding that the size of the donation reflected the US's "long-term strategic relationship" with Pakistan.
This is earthquake diplomacy. The suffering caused by overwhelming natural disaster offers governments a chance to make a powerful gesture stripped of the history and troubles of their normal relations with each other.
That gesture can be very popular at home - as donations to victims of last December's Asian tsunami showed. It is a chance to thank allies, to refashion an image abroad, to mend fences or to humiliate enemies. Among the 90 countries that offered the US help after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, there were some who were hardly the US's greatest friends.
Cuba offered 1100 doctors, surely a gesture of mischief. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez offered aid and soldiers while criticising President George W.Bush for failing to protect the poor.
Iran offered 20 million barrels of oil and unspecified aid through the Red Crescent agency, should the US choose to lift sanctions (it didn't). While provocative in its demands about sanctions, that was also a reciprocal gesture of goodwill. The US had flown in emergency supplies after an earthquake hit the city of Bam in 2003. But it declined a similar offer after another earthquake early this year.
We have yet to see how the US aid is perceived by Pakistanis, but it appears a shrewd move by Washington, as well as a humane one. The US has provoked huge anger within Pakistan by the invasion of Afghanistan, even more than by the Iraq war.
Religious fundamentalist parties have built on that anger to undermine President Pervez Musharraf, and to control the governments of the western provinces on the Afghan border.
The visible demonstration of US support may have more effect on public scepticism than the money, suggests Rusul Bakhsh Rais, a political analyst and professor at the Lahore University of Management Sciences.
For the US, the only risk in the gesture may be the perception at home that it moved more quickly in Muzafferabad than it did in New Orleans.
The Times
Link Here
posted by Kangaroo Brisbane Australia at 1:43 AM
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