President Donald Trump's first tweet of 2018 was music to Indian ears but a bombshell to Pakistani ears. He targeted Pakistan for fighting the Taliban targeting the Pakistan government but not the Taliban and other terrorists that were targeting the Afghan Government and the US-led NATO forces in Afghanistan and instead, providing them sanctuaries in Pakistan. The tweet came following deep frustration from the chief of the NATO-led coalition in Afghanistan Lieutenant General John Nicolson that Pakistan was not doing enough to fight terrorism in Afghanistan.
The tweet itself was interesting in the choice of words. It reads: "The United States has foolishly given Pakistan more than 33 billion dollars in aid over the last 15 years, and they have given us nothing but lies & deceit, thinking of our leaders as fools…They give safe haven to the terrorists we hunt in Afghanistan, with little help. No more!"
This tweet contrasted sharply to what the President had said about Pakistan in October. The President had at that time praised Pakistan warmly after it was helpful in releasing American Caitian Coleman and Canadian Joshua Boyle who were held by the Taliban. He had said then that Pakistan's cooperation in the release "is a very positive moment for our country's relationship with Pakistan."
The President's tweet on Pakistan was, as usual, instantaneous and not at all thought-out. It is true that Pakistan has not been truthful of late in cooperating with the United States and has been providing sanctuary to the Taliban and other terrorists fighting the Afghan government and the US-led NATO forces. However, he tweeted to give the impression that the United States had given the US 33 billion as charity to Pakistan to spend it in any manner it liked. That is not true. The truth is quite the contrary and does not reflect the great sacrifices Pakistan made for the aid.
Of the 33 billion, only a small portion was given as development assistance and that too as its commitment as a Development Assistance Committee DAC)) member country to pay 0.7 per cent of the gross development product (GDP) as development assistance to the developing countries. The lion's portion of the US$33 billion mentioned in the President's tweet has been in military aid that Pakistan spent to buy weapons mostly and to fight the US' war on terror for revenge for the 9/11 attacks, that was neither started by Pakistan nor in its interests. In fact, Pakistan was lured to join the war on terror by the US President GW Bush because, without Pakistan's participation, the war against Afghanistan and Al-Qaeda would not have been possible.
Pakistan's Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif said that President Trump's tweet was "domestic posturing" and the outcome of the US "being trapped in a dead-end street in Afghanistan." The Minister's reaction to President Trump's tweet, in fact, assessed the situation correctly for the US has been negotiating with what they refer to as the moderate Taliban, the very force it had gone to fight and defeat to win the war on terror and take revenge for the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
The President's twisted tweet nevertheless refreshed memory that it has been the United States that had started wars in Vietnam, in Korea, in the Middle East, and tensions in other parts of the world for no reasons except to create the market to sell military weapons, not in billions of dollars but trillions, often giving the buyers military aid as in this instance of Pakistan to make "the military and defence industry a significant driver of economic development in communities throughout the country."
Therefore, President Donald Trump's assumption that US had "foolishly" provided Pakistan US$ 33 billion in aid with nothing in return but "deceit and lies" was an incorrect statement for a variety of reasons. First, a lion's share of US' aid to Pakistan and some other developing countries has been given as military aid for fighting US' wars, not Pakistan's or those of the countries that receive US' military aid and for the benefit of US' defence industry upon which its economy depends to a major extent. Second, a minor part of US aid of US$ 33 billion has been given as development assistance to Pakistan and that too as its commitment to the United Nations and international bodies rather than to Pakistan. Development aid, if withdrawn, would do little harm to Pakistan at present.
In the past, the US was in the habbit of using its development assistance as a stranglehold on developing countries to toe its line in international politics. That effectiveness of its development assistance has vanished long ago of which President Trump did not seem to be fully aware when he tweeted on Pakistan. In Pakistan (as in Bangladesh), its poor expatriates these days send to the country many times more dollars in foreign exchange as remittance that makes US' development assistance to the country with which the President has threatened, nothing more than peanuts.
Thus, President Trump's tweet on Pakistan was distorted on many accounts. Most important of all, he was way off the mark in calling US' leaders fools to have given aid to Pakistan. The fact has been to the contrary. The fools have been the Pakistanis for accepting that aid primarily to fight the wars that the US had entered in Afghanistan for its interests and spending a major part of it to purchase arms and weapons produced in the US. The US military aid has been given to Pakistan neither as charity nor grant.
The threat in President Trump's tweet, if carried out, would establish that it is not Pakistan that is undependable and if accusations of lies and deceit could be made, it could be applied to the United States more than to Pakistan. Pakistan had joined the US' war against USSR on behalf of the Mujahideen in Afghanistan in the 1980s. When the USSR suddenly collapsed, the US withdrew from Afghanistan without even consulting Pakistan leaving the latter with two million Afghan refugees in volatile Pakistan's North West Frontier Province and with it, terrorism that the Muhajadeen brought to Pakistan that has since destroyed the politics of Pakistan. In fact, Pakistan's economy has suffered many times more than the US$ 33 billion because of joining the US led war on terror. In fact, President Trump's tweet underlined a second major betrayal of Pakistan by the United States.
There is little doubt that if President's threat extended to military aid, Pakistan's ruling military would suffer which would not be bad for the people of Pakistan in the long term. That, would however also impact the United States and its military industry. If it was applied to development aid, it would be a threat that Pakistan could very well ignore. But in making the threats, the United States would be losing its presence in a strategic region of the world from where China is laying the foundations of its One Belt, One Road (OBOR) initiative that is showing all the potential of making China the dominant world economic power.
In one year only, President Trump has set his country on road to being marginalised in Europe with his stand towards North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), in Southeast Asia, by withdrawing his country from the Tran-Pacific Partnership (TPP) designed to contain China, in the Middle East with his Jerusalem decision and now in Afghanistan with the tweet against Pakistan. Following the President's tweet, a Chinese spokesman in Beijing dismissed it totally stating unequivocally its complete satisfaction about Pakistan's role and commitment to fight terrorism. Is the Trump presidency set to marginalise the USA as a world power?
The writer is a former Ambassador
serajul7@gmail.com