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President Calls on Congress to Supply $200 Million for Homeless
Unfortunately the 200 million dollars in aide is not for the homeless in this country it is to assist the homeless in Pakistan. The money is included in a new aide package to Pakistan that will triple US assistance to $1.5 billion dollars annually. Meanwhile without waiting for Congress President Barack O’Bush has all ready released 110 million dollars in emergency aide to the struggling homeless Pakistanis and hopes the additional 200 million will be dispatched quickly.
President O’Bush feels that it is important to boost civilian assistance after we bomb their homes in our fight against Al-Qaeda. But all is not well on Capital Hill as a coalition of lawmakers seeks to attach strings to the aide package.
"Our Democratic colleagues decided to load this bill up with ill-conceived provisions to micro-manage US security assistance to Pakistan," said Dan Burton, the top Republican on the House sub-committee handling South Asia.”
These ill-conceived provisions require that Pakistan to keep records as to how the money we give away is spent.
"This is not just a debate between (US lawmakers), this is about war and peace and the survivability of Pakistan as an independent nation. It's about winning or losing the war in Pakistan," Burton said.
A new war? Another war? Or just a new and improved war? Before our ill-conceived war in Iraq, Pakistan seemed quite stable. Selling nuclear secrets and technology. Its security services had helped to place the Taliban in power in Afghanistan. Its former leader came to power in a military coup and when the country’s highest court threatened to open a case about President Musharif’s legitimacy to hold office he promptly fired them and had them placed under house arrest.
Why don’t we trust our allies? The Pakistani military says it has killed nearly 1,400 militants many of them cleverly disguised as women and children, although the figures are impossible to verify. The truth lies somewhere in between, “ U.S. airstrikes aimed at Al Qaeda leaders in Pakistan have been "very effective," with few civilian deaths as a result, CIA Director Leon Panetta said Monday in a rare public acknowledgment of the raids.”
Yet the same raids are condemned by Pakistani military officials as “cowardly attacks.” Mosques and villages have been attacked and one side counts 150 mostly civilian dead while the other side counts only 26 mostly Al Qaeda dead. Yet for all their loss and collateral damage the Pakistanis don’t realize how good they’ve got it.
The 310 million dollars requested by the O’Bush administration is set to aid 2.5 million homeless Pakistanis in the Swat valley after the spring military offensive. In this country the banking interests have been on a foreclosing offensive against Americans at the rate of 300,000 a month and President O’Bush says that it is too early to see whether another stimulus plan for homeless Americans is necessary.
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