Just wondering

Congress had previously approved $300 million in military aid to Pakistan for equipment and training related to "anti-terrorism programs." Now, it seems the State Department, the foreign affairs bureau of the WHS*, wants to take $226 million - more than two-thirds - of that money and use it instead to pay for Pakistan to upgrade its fleet of US-made F-16 fighters.

The planes traditionally have not been used in anti-terrorism operations, and Pakistan sees the planes as a chit in its arms race against rival India. Congress must approve the switch, which was requested days before Pakistan's new prime minister, Yousuf Raza Gilani, is due to meet President Bush at the White House. ...

The prime minister's government has struck proposed partnerships with tribal leaders in the volatile terror-breeding ground along the Afghan border that make U.S. officials nervous.

In addition to other aid such as the $300 million, the US now pays Pakistan nearly $1 billion a year to "reimburse" it for expenses incurred in what's supposed to be counter-terrorism. At the same time, that government makes deals with people who are, we say, shielding and protecting the very people we're supposedly paying Pakistan to fight. We respond by downgrading funding for the supposed purpose of the whole enterprise, i.e., counter-terrorism, and increasing the amount for fighter jets. (The number of "supposed"s in that paragraph is deliberate.)

So, basically, we're trying to buy the allegiance of the new government by de-emphasizing the very goals for which we supposedly, that word again, wanted their allegiance in the first place.

Which, ya know, kinda makes me wonder: Is the Grand and Glorious Most Noble Great War on Terrorism really about terrorism? Or is it just a different approach to geopolitical dominance?

*WHS = White House Sociopaths