An own goal for the US
Management of the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan is a constant source of difficulty
Management of the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan is a constant source of difficulty, disagreement and periodic military action. Sealing the border, creating a border that is impervious to unregulated crossing, is a virtual impossibility. Creating any sort of manned physical barrier is fraught even if it is constructed well inside Pakistan territory. All this is well-enough known and the Americans have hitherto made a contribution to the cost of policing a 2,200-km border — but that is either ending or diminishing.
American aid to Pakistan has been steadily falling from a high of more than $2.2 billion a year in the aftermath of 9/11 to the less that $350 million a year that is being sought for 2018. The principal casualty is the Coalition Support Fund (CSF) which is designed specifically to support the cost of monitoring the border where tens of thousands of our troops are stationed. Their primary task is to check the flow of Taliban across the border as well as attempt to regulate the vast trade in illegal goods, weaponry and munitions.
On the one hand, Washington is congratulating Pakistan for eliminating those that threaten the state, and, on the other, castigating us for not doing enough to combat the Afghan Taliban and particularly the Haqqani Network. Not true says Pakistan, to which the American response has been to attach caveats to the reimbursements that are a part of the CSF. The caveats are for the most part specific to the Haqqani Network, and the US paid in 2015 $300 million for that purpose and $900 million in 2016. Now the 2017 payment is a pending approval and it is by no means a foregone conclusion. Pakistan is damned if it does and damned if it doesn’t. Hot pursuit across the border is not an option and if reports are to be believed the Haqqani Network along with other extremist groups have largely been pushed over the border — where it is for the Americans and Afghans to deal with them. As for the ‘do more’ mantra it appears we can never do enough no matter what. Pay up, Uncle Sam.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 1st, 2017.
American aid to Pakistan has been steadily falling from a high of more than $2.2 billion a year in the aftermath of 9/11 to the less that $350 million a year that is being sought for 2018. The principal casualty is the Coalition Support Fund (CSF) which is designed specifically to support the cost of monitoring the border where tens of thousands of our troops are stationed. Their primary task is to check the flow of Taliban across the border as well as attempt to regulate the vast trade in illegal goods, weaponry and munitions.
On the one hand, Washington is congratulating Pakistan for eliminating those that threaten the state, and, on the other, castigating us for not doing enough to combat the Afghan Taliban and particularly the Haqqani Network. Not true says Pakistan, to which the American response has been to attach caveats to the reimbursements that are a part of the CSF. The caveats are for the most part specific to the Haqqani Network, and the US paid in 2015 $300 million for that purpose and $900 million in 2016. Now the 2017 payment is a pending approval and it is by no means a foregone conclusion. Pakistan is damned if it does and damned if it doesn’t. Hot pursuit across the border is not an option and if reports are to be believed the Haqqani Network along with other extremist groups have largely been pushed over the border — where it is for the Americans and Afghans to deal with them. As for the ‘do more’ mantra it appears we can never do enough no matter what. Pay up, Uncle Sam.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 1st, 2017.