Author: Manu Pubby
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: September 4, 2011
URL: http://www.indianexpress.com/news/US-envoy-to-Pak-justified-funds-as--defence--against--threat-from-India-/841357/0
For years, India has been protesting the steady
build-up of the Pakistan military with the help of US funds, only to be told
by Washington that the support is meant for shoring up counter-insurgency
capabilities. Now, a leaked secret cable has revealed that not only was the
US aware that funds earmarked for the Pakistan military were being used to
increase its capabilities against India but Washington also encouraged Islamabad's
conventional build-up to "reduce regional tensions".
A cable dated August 2009 released by whistleblower
website WikiLeaks quotes the US Ambassador to Pakistan justifying an additional
$1.5 billion to Pakistan to provide for its 'national defense' against the
'threat from India' and the insurgency on the western border.
While US statements in India have always emphasised
that funds allocated to Pakistan are useful for the fight against terror,
Ambassador Anne W Patterson elaborated in the cable that FMF money sent to
Islamabad 'is and should continue' to be directed towards increasing Pakistan's
conventional and counter-insurgency capabilities.
The envoy, who proposes a five year commitment
of $300 million annually to the Pakistan military in the cable, justifies
the increase by arguing that a stronger military would reduce 'regional tensions'
and maintain Pakistan as an ally.
"More substantially, enhancing Pakistan's
overall defense posture would help reduce regional tensions by lessening Pakistan's
perceived need to use asymmetric methods to counter regional threats and reduce
Pakistan's sense of inferiority vis-a-vis India. For these reasons our FMF
money is and should continue to be directed towards all services and toward
conventional as well as counterinsurgency capabilities," Patterson has
written in the cable dispatched to Washington.
"It is important to acknowledge all of
Pakistan's security concerns - both the insurgency along the western border
as well as the threat from India. As a sovereign state, the GOP provides for
the national defense of Pakistan against those threats... the US must simultaneously
stabilize and strengthen Pakistan's military overall to ensure that the GOP
remains a reliable US Ally," Patterson wrote.
She was also of the view that a strengthened
military would deter Pakistan from 'asymmetrical warfare' against India. "If
the military and government of Pakistan are satisfied with their national
defense posture, then it is less likely to engage in asymmetrical warfare
to counter what it perceives to be hostile Indian policies and activities
both along its eastern border as well as in Afghanistan," she wrote.
