Pakistan Calls President Trump’s Cut in Aid “Blackmail”
You know the truism: Don’t bite the hand that feeds you.
Pakistan bit America. In fact, Pakistan has been biting America for decades. Put unlike hapless President Obama, President Trump decided to stop feeding the dog. Thus, the United States recently cut $255 million in aid to the country.
In America millions amount to a rounding error in our budget. However, for Pakistan that’s some serious money.
According to the BBC, Pakistan considers the cut in aid, “Blackmail”.
Palestinian officials have dismissed as “blackmail” Donald Trump’s threat to cut US aid over what he called their unwillingness to negotiate with Israel.
A spokesman for President Mahmoud Abbas insisted Jerusalem was “not for sale” – a reference to Mr Trump’s recognition of the city as the capital of Israel.
Mr Abbas was not against negotiations, he said, but they had to be based on “international laws and resolutions”.
The US provided $260m (£192m) of bilateral aid for Palestinians in 2016.
In addition, it is the largest single donor to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (Unrwa), providing $368m in 2016.
They can dismiss the action all they want. But in the end, they will not get their normal funding from the U.S.
As we wrote when the announce of the cut was made,
The War on Terror will no longer be fought by the United States. Nor will we finance it.
And why should we?
Outside of a few legacy-Obama jihadists, America doesn’t create many terrorists. Let’s all say it together to appease Leftists…Timothy McVeigh.
Crazed white anti-government McVeigh notwithstanding, America is relatively terrorist-free. But other countries, not so much.
When President Trump visited Saudi Arabia, he made the biggest arms deal in history. The roughly $350 billion package put the Saudis on notice: you will defend yourselves. The same is true for the rest of the Middle East.
But the bigger message centered around stopping terror at its source. President Trump said without saying, “If you don’t stop terror yourselves, America will take its ball and go home.”
And that appears to be what’s happening in Pakistan. From Hindustan Times:
The Trump administration on Friday announced the United States will deny Pakistan military aid amounting to $255 million as it expects Islamabad to take decisive action “against terrorists and militants on its soil”.
“The United States does not plan to spend the $255 million in FY 2016 in Foreign Military Financing for Pakistan at this time,” said a spokesperson of the President’s National Security Council in a statement to Hindustan Times.
“The President has made clear that the United States expects Pakistan to take decisive action against terrorists and militants on its soil, and that Pakistan’s actions in support of the South Asia Strategy will ultimately determine the trajectory of our relationship, including future security assistance.
How cool is that! A president who recognizes that we shouldn’t help the enemy.
In living up to broken promises by many presidents before him, President Trump pursued what he called “the ultimate deal”. He tasked his son-in-law Jared Kushner and former lawyer Justin Greenblatt to work on a plan to end the decades-old conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.
His first big step was recognizing Israel capital as Jerusalem. This move was long overdue, and now it’s done.
Yet the United Nations voted 14 to 1 against the move, as did countries like Pakistan.
We wrote of this at the time:
The United States Ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley vetoed the resolution, the only “no” vote, as others voted 14-1.
What amazing fortitude by President Trump to stand alone. To hell with the rest of the world. When America is great, eventually the rest will follow. And that vote showcased the lack of leadership by the Obama administration more than anything thus far.
As for the United Nations, the Trump administration has run out of warnings.
After the vote, the president commented:
“All of these nations that take our money and then they vote against us at the Security Council or they vote against us, potentially, at the Assembly… They take hundreds of millions, even billions, and then they vote against us. Well, we’re watching these votes. Let them vote against us, we’ll save a lot. We don’t care.“
If the United Nations has learned nothing, they should know that President Trump doesn’t bluff where America First is concerned.
As Ambassador Haley said during her response, the United States is “taking names.” And if the UN believes President Trump cares about the New World Order or other nonsense supported by Obama and his minions, a rude wake-up call awaits.
So not only was Pakistan warned, the world was warned.
And if taking the money of hardworking taxpaying American’s money away from countries who don’t support our interest is “blackmail”, then America is about to blackmail the world.
America helps the world in time of crisis. However, if you want our money otherwise, then you will partner with us…period.
President Trump said to Pakistan, “F*ck YOU!”, strong memo to follow.
