According to the Government Accountability Office, billions of dollars of taxpayer money specified for Pakistan has not been monitored. The GAO says that Pakistan’s tribal region, which borders Afghanistan, is the biggest haven for Al Qaeda and other Islamic extremist groups. It says that this region poses the greatest threat to Americans both at home and abroad, yet the GAO maintains that the White House’s National Security council has never developed a plan that covers all elements of national power—diplomatic, military, intelligence, development, economic and law enforcement support.
According to the GAO, $5.8 billion of the $10.5 billion in U.S. aid to Pakistan from 2002 to 2007 was spent on operations in the tribal areas and that 96% of that funding reimbursed Pakistan for military operations that have proved largely unsuccessful.
The biggest tragedy is that no one seems to be talking about this. The candidates for President are too busy attacking each other over semantics than talking about issues. And our media is too preoccupied attacking them over their attacks and other asinine, irrelevant things. When coverage of the Iraq War--where we have over 100,000 American troops on repeated tours-- is infrequent at best, I suppose we can't expect too much about Pakistan.
This is the “greatest threat” to U.S. security people! Isn’t it about time it's brought to the forefront?
