WASHINGTON (AP) - Pakistan must prove it is willing to take on extremists within its own borders before the U.S. delivers financial aid or weapons to the government there, a key senator said Tuesday.
Sen. Carl Levin, chairman of the Armed Services Committee, said he does not believe the United States can buy stability in Pakistan.
And he said he’d support economic and military aid only after he sees that the Pakistani government understands that it is in its own interest to battle its internal insurgent threats. So far, he said, he is not convinced.
“If I thought we could buy stability, I would buy it,” the Michigan Democrat told reporters during a breakfast meeting. “I have no reluctance in purchasing stability if it’s effective. But I don’t think it’s effective unless the recipient of the support sees where the threat is to them. I think otherwise it can backfire.”
Levin’s stance signals some difficulties for the Obama administration’s plans to provide at least $1.5 billion in aid to Pakistan.
President Barack Obama endorsed the aid last week as he unveiled his new strategy for the war in Afghanistan, but he also cautioned that the U.S. will not write a blank check to the Pakistani government.
Levin said that Pakistan has not displayed the political will to go after extremists, and instead is more inclined to try and buy peace “with people I don’t think you can buy peace with.”
Asked about Levin’s comments, Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the U.S. needs a comprehensive plan that assures Pakistan that “we’re not going to leave them.” Also, since a lot of resources are going to Pakistan, “there needs to be an audit trail, an understanding where it’s going and what it’s doing, and I think we’re all aboard for that,” he said.
Mullen added that if the Pakistani government funnels any of those resources to the insurgents, the U.S. financial aid should stop.
At the same time, Levin condemned NATO nations for failing to provide the funding and troops needed to wage the Afghanistan war, saying the allies’ performance has been “nothing short of pitiful.”
On top of the 17,000 troops he had already approved, Obama decided last week to send another 4,000 troops that will focus on training Afghan army and police forces to take over their own security.
“We’ve got a long way to go,” Maj. Gen. Richard P. Formica, head of training, said Tuesday of his efforts to reform Afghan police. In addition to the U.S. contribution of 4,000 trainers, Afghan officials are working to weed out corrupt practices in the police sector, including in the way equipment is controlled and accounted for and how pay is handled, Formica told a Pentagon news conference.
About 90,000 Afghan soldiers have been trained and assigned to units, and Formica said officials are on track to grow that number to 134,000 by December 2011. With the police, there are some 80,000 assigned, but a broad effort is being made to reform the force and increase it to roughly 82,000. Officials also are working to determine how many more police and soldiers are needed above the current targets.
___
Associated Press writers Pauline Jelinek and Richard Lardner contributed to this report.
___
On the Net:
Defense Department: https://www.defenselink.mil
Please read our comment policy before commenting.