Billions in US aid never reached Pakistan army!

[Bravo Zulu]

The United States has long suspected that much of the billions of dollars it has sent Pakistan to battle militants has been diverted to the domestic economy and other causes, such as fighting India.

Now the scope and longevity of the misuse is becoming clear: Between 2002 and 2008, while al-Qaida regrouped, only $500 million of the $6.6 billion in American aid actually made it to the Pakistani military, two army generals tell The Associated Press.

read more
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/as_wasted_aid_to_pakistan

[Eric J in MN]

1. Money is transferable.

If they gave 100% of that money to Pakistani soldiers fighting "militants," it still wouldn't be meaningful if the total spent on that didn't increase by the amount given.

It's like when states have lotteries and say that money is for education, but do NOT require that education spending always equal at least the amount already being spent on education before the lottery started, plus lottery profits.

[DRoseDARs]

2. 7.5% of our aid earmarked specifically for Pak's efforts was spent on that effort.

Seven.

And.

A.

Fucking.

Half

Percent.



All on Bush's watch. Methinks we should stop paying for the privilege of attacking al Qaeda on Pakistanian territory and just deal directly with the problem since clearly the Pakistan military has zero interest (well, to be fair, 7.5% interest...) in protecting its OWN existence against the religious extremists there. Neither we nor they can afford al Qaeda gaining influence in a nuclear-armed country with a wide segment of its population already hostile to our interests as well as next door to 1.1 billion of its blood enemies in also-nuclear-armed India with whom they've been at war with a number of times.

[shraby]

3. Wouldn't that money go a long way toward funding the

public option or better yet single payer???? Piss on Pakistan.