The Portrayal of Pakistan and America’s Friendship Is Just a Joke

The only result from Strategic Dialogue was that $2 billion of military aid will only begin to be available in 2012 over a period of five years. However, the usefulness of the military aid package has been torn apart by Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani, who said it is actually a payment because the Pakistani Army has already spent this money on the war against terrorism.

Another “favor” America has given Pakistan is “promising” to give Pakistan a wind energy unit with which they can produce 150 megawatts of electricity. However, there has been no statement from America on how they can help to tap into Gharkul’s vast resources from which 30,000 megawatts of electricity can be produced every day.

Hilary Clinton gave Pakistan the title of “Best Ally,” and upon this regal favor, our leaders spread out flowers by calling the war on terror Pakistan’s war instead of America’s war. We were to acquire F-16 aircrafts and Cobra helicopters from America, and it was agreed that even more F-16 aircrafts and Cobra helicopters could be obtained. However, America squeezed our hopes by increasing the prices of F-16 aircrafts and Cobra helicopters to such an amount that we may not be able to buy that many aircrafts and helicopters. In response, Minister of Defense Ahmed Mukhtar’s noteworthy speech stated that the price is beyond our affordability. Pakistan has also been kept away from drone aircrafts and their technology. Nonetheless, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi showered smiles upon the Americans and after the Strategic Dialogues his face was still aglow, like he had just shot down a big arrow.

Perhaps the reason for these smiles was American President Obama’s speech, in which he said that there will be no playing around with Pakistan’s democracy. Pakistan has already spent over $37 billion on the war against terror and this war is being fought with the earnings of the citizen’s sweat and blood. In other words, the money is ours, the army is ours and the war is America’s, but our leaders have renamed it Pakistan’s war and are making the same mistakes that Musharraf made. What kind of war is this in which America’s drone aircrafts are killing our own people and we are not even given enough authority for the Pakistani Army to own these drone aircrafts and use them wherever they think is necessary?

Late General Zia-ul-Haq was a dictator, but he called America’s few billion dollars worth of aid nothing more than a “peanut.” With American money and arms, we fought the war and collected aid on our own terms. In contrast to that, the current democratic government has made an absolutely damaging deal. And now this terrible deal is being presented to the people of Pakistan as profitable.

If America only gave us the means to tap into Gharkul’s resources to produce electricity, then we could control the power crisis and the wheels of our economy would start turning. If the economy’s wheels started turning, then we would not need America’s or any other country’s aid, nor would we be in debt and we would be able to protect our freedom and our independence; but this is the very issue that Americans have a problem with. They want to keep us captured in their closed fists any way they can so that we would have to obey all their invalid demands and do only what they want.

If our current government had any confidence and were not faithless in God, then they would refuse the $2 billion worth of “aid” by saying that this is only the fee that the Pakistani Army has already spent. If only we had some courage to say this, then America would have no choice but to give us the aid that we really need or risk losing us as an ally against terrorism. If only our Foreign Minister would take a strong stand on this issue and come back to our country, America would run behind him and give us everything that we are in need of.