Trump Administration Cracks Down on Pakistan

Tweet first, announce policy later: that is the pattern that President Trump has followed with regard to Pakistan. On Monday, Trump tweeted:

Today the State Department announced a suspension of security aid to Pakistan until its government cracks down on the Taliban:

The Trump administration says it is suspending security assistance to the Pakistani military until it takes “decisive action” against the Afghan Taliban and Haqqani network that are targeting U.S. personnel in Afghanistan.

State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert did not say Thursday how much assistance was being suspended. She said details were still being worked out.

The administration is already holding up $255 million in assistance which is used by Pakistan to buy U.S. military equipment until it cracks down on extremists threatening Afghanistan.

Nauert said the latest measure would also suspend other security assistance, but did not specify what that covered, saying it was administered by the Defense Department.

This is good. Pakistan has been playing a double game for a long time. It is long past time for an American administration to demand more from that country’s government.

Notice: All comments are subject to moderation. Our comments are intended to be a forum for civil discourse bearing on the subject under discussion. Commenters who stray beyond the bounds of civility or employ what we deem gratuitous vulgarity in a comment — including, but not limited to, “s***,” “f***,” “a*******,” or one of their many variants — will be banned without further notice in the sole discretion of the site moderator.

Responses