US should rein in Pakistan by stopping military assistance, says South Asia expert

Washington DC [United States], Aug.23 (ANI): The United States would do well to review its existing programs of military assistance to foreign countries like Pakistan, which have a known historical reputation for fanning terrorism and insurgency in the South Asian neighborhood, an expert on the region has said.

Commenting on US President Donald Trump's warning to Pakistan that it must stop working with "agents of chaos", and stop harboring terrorist organizations and the Taliban, Carol Christine Fair, Associate Professor at the Center for Peace and Security Studies within Georgetown University's Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, took to Twitter to say, "The real enemy is Pakistan not Afghanistan and I would actually even go further the biggest program .intimated about it which is the Coalition Support Fund."

"This is where Pakistan gets billion dollar funds a year to do it as sovereign countries are supposed to do which is keep its countries safe. I actually think that we should get rid of that program all together and paying Pakistan for what sovereign countries are supposed to do actually does violence to that commitment in the first instance," Fair further stated.

"I think we should be completely re-examining our foreign military assistance. We should provide them, we should provide them no excess to strategic platforms like F-16s that allows it to continue aggression towards India," she added.

"We should be willing to provide platform that will aid in conducting counter-insurgency operations," Fair said.

President Trump's sketched-out plan appeared to be an echo of former vice president Joe Biden's proposal, dubbed "counter-terrorism plus," said Professor Fair.

In an article published in the Quartz described President Donald Trump's new strategy in Afghanistan and South Asia "as light on details", but seemed to suggest that America could consider going in for an open-ended war in Afghanistan to achieve an "everlasting peace."

In 2011, according to Congressional Research Service data, there were nearly 100,000 American troops in Afghanistan, and 2017, there are fewer than 9,000 troops in the country.

President Trump's announcement of "integration of all instruments of American power-diplomatic, economic, and military-toward a successful outcome" was not a new idea, as in 2009, the State Department had laid out its all-hands-on-deck strategy of counter-insurgency (COIN), which it described as "the blend of comprehensive civilian and military efforts designed to simultaneously contain insurgency and address its root causes."

The Qartz article said both Presidents Trump and Obama have pledged that there would be no "blank check" to Afghanistan.

President Obama said in2009, "The days of providing a blank check are over."

"Our commitment is not unlimited, and our support is not a blank check," President Trump said Monday night.

In his address to the nation on Monday, President Trump's warning to Pakistan represents a possible US foreign policy shift towards developing a closer alliance with India and less focus on Pakistan, a country that has irritated Washington for years due to its support of militant and terror groups.

"Today, 20 U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organizations are active in Afghanistan and Pakistan - the highest concentration in any region anywhere in the world," Trump said Monday in his address to the nation.

Late Tuesday, the Wall Street Journal reported "more than 12,000 U.S. troops" are stationed in Afghanistan, a figure the paper noted was "about 3,500 more than" the Pentagon has publicly acknowledged.

The Journal reported "another 3,900 troops" will be sent to Afghanistan under the president's new strategy, bringing the total number to "about 16,000 troops." It cited unnamed defense officials.

There have been numerous reports that the new strategy in Afghanistan and South Asia that Trump outlined includes sending additional U.S. forces to Afghanistan. The 16-year-long Afghanistan war also has included a significant contingent of NATO forces.

Without providing specifics, Defense Secretary James Mattis said in a statement Monday: "I have directed the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to make preparations to carry out the president's strategy." (ANI)

This story has not been edited. It has been published as provided by ANI