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The other elephant in the Pakistani room
I've been mulling over for days what it is about the recent talk of "strategic dialogue" and the "new relationship" between the US and Pakistan that just doesn't sit right with me. It's not the nagging question as to what has actually changed in the past month or so. It's not even the elephant of American popular image in the nicely decorated Pakistani drawing room.
Today, while reading this article in the Foreign Affairs journal, I finally figured out what it is. The writer, Haider Mullick, a fellow at the US Joint Special Operations University and a bunch of other impressive stuff, isn't actually commenting on the recent talks. He's talking about Pakistan's counterinsurgency efforts in Waziristan.
Mullick makes some really interesting points. The Pakistani army isn't trampling around Waziristan creating more enemies than it kills or captures, he says, instead, it's learning from its own experiences as well as those of others to implement a comprehensive strategy that's securing the population.
"The fate of the internally displaced was the Achilles' heel of our mission," said one senior military officer involved in relief efforts. "Without protecting them, we would have no local partners, good intelligence, or popular support to carry on."
Sounds like a great starting point. After which, Mullick goes on to outline how the Pakistani army reassured the population, worked with international partners to establish well-run camps, re-tooled the soldiers in the field to try and limit the negative impact on locals. He even goes on to outline a future plan which involves the Pakistanis working with the Afghanis, Indians and Americans to "flip" someone like Hekmateyar in order to kick start the process of re-integrating the Taliban. Yep, you read it right and it's not a typo.. "Indians".
Anyway, right at the end, we have...
"But even these well-designed initiatives will fail in the absence of a comprehensive plan that targets growing problems in Pakistan's government, judiciary, and military. The government is unable to efficiently use the foreign aid that it receives, and widespread corruption plagues development efforts."
This is my gripe. While the big men (and women) of international politics smile for the cameras, corruption, bureaucracy, mismanagement etc make no more than a fleeting mention in the post script. But, really, these issues are the key to all else. Read the autobiographies of several Pakistani former presidents and prime ministers and you quickly realise that military dictator or civilian populist, they all struggled to get the simple functions of state done.
Allow the AM blog to assist if it's not quite clear. We could run a little programme for journalists and policy makers. If you need to get a feel for what is involved in making words into deeds in Pakistan, come to Islamabad and apply for a driving license. Compare the stated cost and time scale with how long it actually takes and how much you have to pay. Make a note of the difference. It accounts for much of the "credibility deficit".
If a government doesn't have a handle on the levers of power, grand international handshakes are meaningless. What Pakistan actually needs help in is delivery.
"The government is unable to
"The government is unable to efficiently use the foreign aid that it receives, and widespread corruption plagues development efforts."
* If you're a corrupt adult, you're an adult who's made his choices.
* Foreign Aid, like all aid - is welfare, and corrupting by nature. It also undermines the local economy literally from the ground up (local farmers can't make a living). That an it creates increasingly childish and in adults functional imbecility in that they are unable to care for themselves. Having lost the knack of it.
*We come to Pakistan to drive get a drivers license and....tell you what: WTF was the point in leaving?
The Indians are indeed next door and seem to limp on well enough without asking me to borrow more from the Chinese to give to a million Mr 10%'s. In fact if anyone needs to move in to recolonize Pakistan the Chinese look like they're quite efficient at it. We can ask Sri Lanka. Or Tibet.
If you haven't seen the Oscar winning movie "Precious" yet rent or torrent it. You don't want any more aid.
The "US Joint Special
The "US Joint Special Operations University". This is a joke isn't it. Does it have varsity sports and cheer leaders? Let me guess- it gives out degrees heavily based on "life experience" and allows students to bypass everything other than classes on spec ops/ coin etc.
Is it a coincidence that as the military has become more more degree heavy it's ability execute it's missions in a timely and cost effective manner has decreased?
Londonstani, excellent post.
Londonstani, excellent post. But my question is, who will help them deliver? The West, the IMF? The structural problems with Western Aid are so pervasive as to render it more harmful than helpful, particularly in a country where the entrenched bureaucracy is corrupt and dare I say a culture of corruption pervades political systems. If Western Aid were effectual the African continent would be a stellar community of nations. When dealing with nations like Pakistan, or indeed anywhere, is how to give local communities the space to operate and develop civil institutions without suffering from the inevitable police shakedown if they prove to economically viable. The question is also how to allow Westerners to keep their nose out of local community institutions even if those institutions are real, or perceived, anti-American. Perfect example, the Islamic Courts of Somalia.
Pardon me, but it seems that
Pardon me, but it seems that Pakistan doesn't lack plenty of sophisticated Delivery when it comes to producing video footage that shows their Army to be engaged in fighting terrorism. Pakistan deserves no sympathy fro the West. Western societies have never been honestly informed that the Pakistani's created the Taliban or the LeT. Considering that the Pakistan intelligence services created the Taliban and the LeT, isn't it a big stretch of the imagination for us who are knowledgeable to accept that Pakistan has been, and is currently actually fighting a war against terrorism? Give the Paki's credit for having good field production values for creating the Globalvision impression of a terrorism fighting Pakistan. But I think there is a very dangerous lie going around about how Pakistan is fighting the Taliban. The Pakistanis are in bed with the Iranians.
http://www.spiritofamerica.ne
http://www.spiritofamerica.net/
1. Is anyone quantifying the above projects?
2. Is there a set policy on what we should be giving the locals? OR Are the items to be given determined at the platoon level?
3. Why are we handing out Qur'ans? If we are not able to hand out Bibles, this should be a no brainer. And if the Qur'ans are Dari, Pashto, Urdu translations, are we certain they have no Wahhabi/Deobandi annotations?
4. With all the good intentions, I am reminded of Fick's account of handing out pork chow mein to the locals, are all the items we're giving them kosher?
The Head of Abu Dhabi's most
The Head of Abu Dhabi's most important wealth fund missing...Godfather III Anyone?
"http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/7529406/Gulf-sheikh-Ahmed-bin-Zayed-al-Nahyan-missing-after-plane-crash.html"
Remember the PMF post....all
Remember the PMF post....all the lawyers in Washington...
Read this...... http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0310/35050.html
We eat Mac&Cheese each night....Looks like a few Mr. 10%'s in Washington not to mention the 1950's benefit packages.
Londonstani - Reading this
Londonstani -
Reading this post - very nicely done! - and the comments, I wonder if there is some sort of shift going on in the way we in the West think about the aid regimes that have developed over the past decades. Okay, you all know I lean small c conservative or libertarian (and I like to hang out here so that I challenge my beliefs, although I'm not sure I do a good job of that) and so am naturally unsure of aid versus direct investment, but I really wonder if that shift isn't taking place in different ways in different intellectual communities.
Just what are we, or the people we mean to help such as Pakistanis that deserve better, getting in return for all these millions?
Why is direct business investment such a dirty word, or phrase? How much direct foreign business investment in Pakistan is there? Hello business-y people who read the comments help a out!
Is the dislike of Indians
Is the dislike of Indians being stoked by powers-that-be - and by this I mean people in the West, too? Do a lot of everyday Pakistanis (and how can you judge this?) really care about India or are they more concerned with their day to day life? Is the dreaded "rivalry" really an elite obsession?
@Madhu, Indians are the new
@Madhu,
Indians are the new Jews. It's the price of success. I suggest you skip the pogrom part, go right to being 100% strapped (armed), and put down the guilt. Now. Really, it's just a useless bag of bricks.
Seriously, look at Pakistan's propaganda. They think the Hindu's and the Jooooos are in cahoots with the Americans and that's who's setting off the bombs.
The more I look at the world, the more I realize how much the productive people subsidize everything bad. The Dole is at the center of all the worlds modern evils.
Think of the criminal class in any modern city (or capital). Where would they be without welfare? They'd have to get job.
Speaking of which - I've come up with a new moniker for the Salesman: Mr 10%. Which happens to be what the deficit ballooned to in only one year (from 3%).
We'd be better off with Al Sharpton as President. At least he's lived a little....
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