‘No more!’ Trump tweets to Pakistan, accusing it of ‘lies & deceit’ - Politics Forum.org | PoFo

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#14875819
‘No more!’ Trump tweets to Pakistan, accusing it of ‘lies & deceit’
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/as ... 856f5c6a0a

ISLAMABAD -- Pakistan’s defense minister responded angrily Monday to an early-morning tweet by President Trump that accused America’s once-close ally of “lies & deceit,” countering that the United States had given Pakistan “invective and mistrust” in return.

In his first tweet of the new year, Trump had said that the United States had “foolishly” given Pakistan $33 billion in aid over the last 15 years, “and they have given us nothing but lies & deceit, thinking of our leaders as fools.”

Trump wrote further: “They give safe haven to the terrorists we hunt in Afghanistan, with little help. No more!”

Defense Minister Khurram Dastgir-Khan hit back on Twitter, writing that Pakistan, as an “anti-terror ally” of the United States, had given Washington land and air communication, military bases and intelligence cooperation that “decimated Al-Qaeda over the last 16yrs” while America “has given us nothing but invective and mistrust.”

Officials in the country’s capital scrambled to arrange a cabinet meeting to be held Tuesday to adopt a response to the Twitter attack, while Foreign Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif said in an interview on Geo television that the country is ready to publicly provide an accounting of “every detail” of U.S. aid it has received.

Pakistan was already doing all it could to combat terrorism within its borders, he said.

“We have already told the U.S. that we will not do more, so Trump’s ‘no more’ does not hold any importance,” Asif said.

Late Monday afternoon, White House spokesman Raj Shah said the White House does not plan to spend $255 million in fiscal 2016 military aid to Pakistan already appropriated by Congress. That decision was first reported by CNN. The payment has been on hold since August, out of the Trump administration’s insistence that Pakistan do more to crack down on extremists who threaten Afghanistan.

The tense exchanges followed days of speculation that the Trump administration -- dissatisfied with the way Pakistan has dealt with the Taliban-affiliated Haqqani network and other terrorist groups -- was set to dramatically reduce aid to the South Asian nation, long a key partner in the region.

We shouldn’t overstate the policy significance of this tweet,” said Michael Kugelman, deputy director for the Asia Program at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington. “It’s more likely to be an expression of frustration or a statement of intent rather than an actual declaration of a new policy.”

According to a November report from the Congressional Research Service, the United States has appropriated $34 billion in direct aid and military reimbursements for Pakistan since 2002, with proposed security and economic assistance at $345 million for this fiscal year. That number is a significant decrease from the $526 million allotted in fiscal year 2017.

In India, news of Trump’s tweet was met with celebration in some quarters, a healthy dose of skepticism in others. Analysts pointed out that in October Trump had tweeted that the administration was “starting to develop a much better relationship with Pakistan and its leaders.”

This worried Indian officials who had hoped Trump would be taking a stronger stance on Pakistan.

The good will appears to have flagged for a variety of reasons; administration officials, for example, were reportedly not happy that Pakistan freed Hafiz Mohammad Saeed from house arrest in November. The Islamist cleric -- who led the militant group that conducted the terror attack on Mumbai in 2008, which left more than 160 civilians dead -- had been arrested last January.

Last month, during a visit to Afghanistan, Vice President Mike Pence had issued a warning to the country, saying that Trump had “put Pakistan on notice” that it has provided a “safe haven” for terrorist groups. “Those days are over,” Pence said.

Gowen reported from New Delhi.

I agree with Trump. It was pretty clear 18 years ago that Pakistan was a horrible choice to piggyback on. They've NEVER actually been with us. They've undermined us from the start.
#14875853
Pakistan's duplicity with regards to Osama Bin Laden was clear for all to see.
They knew all along where he was hiding, in the middle of Pakistan's main military cantonment, and after the American operation, they imprisoned a Pakistani doctor who allegedly helped the Americans. As far as I know, that guy is still in jail. Why would America help Pakistan? It is a rogue state.
#14875854
Heisenberg wrote:Might be the first Trump tweet I can endorse wholeheartedly.

How the west managed to choose Pakistan as an ally, rather than India, is a mystery to me.


You know why they chose Pakistan... because they never wanted to solve anything. India would be a solution so they chose Pakistan instead. Trump might want to solve things which make him a problem for US military complex and shadow Government
#14875859
Heisenberg wrote:How the west managed to choose Pakistan as an ally, rather than India, is a mystery to me.

It was because of geopolitics. India was close to the Soviet Union after independence so the US chose Pakistan as its ally in the Region.
This also led Nixon (Kissinger) to side against Bangladesh when it fought for independence in 1971.
#14875887
Trump has previously also literally tweeted about Pakistan deceiving US, being evil and then two days later tweeting that what great allies they are, so I don't know what to make of it, he's Trump...... :hmm:

And then why US sides with Pakistan? Is it really surprising, its not the first horrible regime that west is allied with.

Finally, West didn't allied with India because India was allied with USSR, on the contrary India chose to ally with USSR because west was hostile to her. Like any sensible newly independent country, India didn't wanted to antagonize west and did hoped for a good relationship but then like many newly independent country they had to realize that colonial interests didn't end with colonialism and like many other newly independent countries were pushed towards soviet sphere.

One example, Goa, Goa was part of Portugal after Indian independence, Portugal was in NATO and Portugal was not willing to give up Goa and when India invaded Goa in 1961, US was planning to bomb and put troops in India but thanks to USSR, this never happened.
#14875889
The Indians were, as has been pointed out, neutral but leaning toward the Soviets. The Civil Rights campaign that the establishment feared in the US took its inspiration from India. And Dulles wanted American versions of Gurkahs that he thought he could foster in Pakistan.

It took Nixon to go to China.
#14875892
Should be more focused on the Pakistan-US relationship, not Trump

Anyway

Pakistan Summons U.S. Ambassador After Trump's Angry Tweet
https://www.usnews.com/news/world/artic ... ngry-tweet

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan summoned the U.S. ambassador in protest against U.S. President Donald Trump's angry tweet about Pakistan's "lies and deceit", while Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif dismissed the outburst as a political stunt.

David Hale was summoned by the Pakistan foreign office on Monday to explain Trump's tweet, media said. A spokesperson for the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad confirmed the meeting took place.

In a withering attack, Trump on Monday said the United States has "foolishly" handed Pakistan more than $33 billion in aid in the last 15 years and had been rewarded with "nothing but lies and deceit".

"They give safe haven to the terrorists we hunt in Afghanistan, with little help. No more!" Trump wrote on Twitter.

Pakistan Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi on Tuesday will chair a cabinet meeting that will focus on Trump's tweet, while on Wednesday the country's top civilian and military chiefs will meet to discuss deteriorating U.S. ties.

Relations between United States and its uneasy ally Pakistan have been strained for many years over Islamabad's alleged support for Haqqani network militants, who are allied with the Afghan Taliban.

Washington has signaled to Pakistan that it would cut aid and enact other punitive measures if Islamabad did not stop helping or turning a blind eye to the Haqqani network militants who carry out cross-border attacks in Afghanistan.

Islamabad bristles at the suggestion it is not doing enough in the war against militancy, saying that since 2001, Pakistan has suffered more than the United States from militancy as casualties at the hands of Islamists number in the tens of thousands.

...

Good to see that US policy is literally being dictated in f*ing tweets.
#14875893
fuser wrote:One example, Goa, Goa was part of Portugal after Indian independence, Portugal was in NATO and Portugal was not willing to give up Goa and when India invaded Goa in 1961, US was planning to bomb and put troops in India but thanks to USSR, this never happened.

India also took over Sikhim and Pondicherry and whatever else was up for grabs on the Subcontinent.
India even had a plan to invade Bhutan and take it over but that was nipped in the bud because the UN was informed of it and those plans were cancelled.
And Kashmir lies unresolved...
#14875898
Don't forget, Hyderabad,Junagarh and you do overestimate power of UN, you think UN was not informed about any of these annexations? :lol: The state of Sikkim, Nepal, Bhutan etc is as it is because of Sino-Indian cold war not UN.

Furthermore I fail to see what is your point in stating the obvious, west didn't allied with India because Kashmir remains unresolved? :?: The whole subcontinental mess that was basically created by British Empire.

Furthermore comparing peaceful transfer of pondicherry with invasion of Goa is just wrong while France handed over her territories peacefully after a vote the fascists in Portugal wanted to cling to their colonial possessions with backing from US, it was USSR that helped "liberation" of Goa.
#14875921
Heisenberg wrote:Might be the first Trump tweet I can endorse wholeheartedly.

How the west managed to choose Pakistan as an ally, rather than India, is a mystery to me.


Part of the problem was that India sided with the Soviet Union during the cold war, probably because it over-compensated after the end of British rule towards revolutionary tendencies and had a lot of socialists in its political ranks. By contrast, Pakistan was trying to establish its own security against an expanding and aggressive soviet union in central asia.

That Pakistan remained an ally this long is odd and shows a disconnect in the U.S. policy where it failed to properly pivot from cold-war alliances towards civilizational conflict in its war against islamic radicalism. Just like praising Osama Bin Laden was so 1980s, likewise was maintaining pakistan as an friend in the war on terror.

India has had to deal with Islamic radical bullshit and has done so effectively for longer than most mixed nations, they would be invaluable. Besides, their growing economy has a lot of opportunities and their rate of English fluency is fantastic on the domestic front (most english speakers in the world).

I have a good family friend who was an exchange student in my high school form a wealthy military family in Pakistan and I know he is working hard to make Pakistan more pro-western, so i'm sure this tweet would bother him, but his country is fucked up and needs to get its house in order before we can trust it on issues of global security.
#14875925
Ter wrote:Pakistan's duplicity with regards to Osama Bin Laden was clear for all to see.
They knew all along where he was hiding, in the middle of Pakistan's main military cantonment, and after the American operation, they imprisoned a Pakistani doctor who allegedly helped the Americans. ...

Yes, and Pakistan funded many of the ACME weapons that Wile E Coyote used against the Roadrunner.

/as well-informed and grounded in history as the current president of USA and his god-fearing citizen-consumer-followers
#14875954
Victoribus Spolia wrote:Part of the problem was that India sided with the Soviet Union during the cold war, probably because it over-compensated after the end of British rule towards revolutionary tendencies and had a lot of socialists in its political ranks. By contrast, Pakistan was trying to establish its own security against an expanding and aggressive soviet union in central asia.



*sigh* This is completely wrong, let me tell you once again India and many other newly independent countries were basically begging to be part of western sphere, alliance system whatever but it was the colonial interests of the west that pushed these nations in soviet sphere, stop putting the cart before the horse. No one wants to antagonize the biggest meanest kid on the block just for the sake of it.

It is in these times that I think that everyone in this world must be taught about Patrice Lumba forcibly if needs arise, to clearly appreciate the whole cold war era.
#14875982
@fuser,

I think you are being simplistic, the western bloc was dominated by many colonialist and imperialist powers, socialism was big in Indian political circles at this time, Stalin had great relations with a whole spread of Indian politicians including PM Nehru, India had bad relations with China due to border conflicts and Nixon made peace with China over-and-against the Soviet Union which probably helped to push India into Russia's arms.

I don't disagree that fear was a factor, but there was a definite ideological motivation that you are attempting to preclude here which seems a bit dishonest.

India had a distinct and clear bitterness against the British Empire and had solidarity with other post-colonial states against many of the nations that were in the fold of NATO and the western powers. Likewise, that socialism had any popularity in such a post-colonial nation is analogous to the same phenomena in many African and East Asian states as well that had been liberated from colonial rule in the 20th century and likewise supported the Soviet Union (such as Vietnam to name one).
#14876006
India wasn’t part of the Soviet block. In fact India was the leader of the non aligned movement during the Cold War.

As to Pakistan and Trump’s tweet, does he realise that without Pakistan, US and allied forces can’t stay in Afghanistan? The logistic routes go through Pakistan.

Furthermore, Pakistan isn’t the world’s most stable country. They probably would like to sort out tribesmen who have been helping the insurgents but can’t due to the danger of revolt. It’s not like the Pakistani army has complete control on the North West frontier (is it still called that?).

Finally, Pakistan has nukes. America needs to ensure those nukes don’t fall into the wrong hands and so supporting the Pakistani government, however frustrating it might be, is better than watching it collapse and Islamic radicals then distributing the bomb to their operatives.
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