Army Gen. John Nicholson, the top military commander in Afghanistan, said Friday that he supports the decision to withhold $300 million in military aid for Pakistan.
“It was his way of saying that there’s not adequate pressure being put on the Haqqanis,” Nicholson said, referring to Secretary of Defense Ash Carter’s move not to grant military aid to Pakistan earlier this year, according to The Hill. “And I concur with the Secretary’s assessment on that.”
Carter refuses to certify that Pakistan is taking seriously the need to crush the Haqqani network, a Taliban affiliate often implicated in attacks against U.S. military personnel in Afghanistan, where 9,800 servicemembers are still stationed. This is the first time the Obama administration has blocked military aid to Pakistan, due to actions of the Haqqani group.
The Haqqani network is increasing attacks in Afghanistan and the U.S. military is now actively engaged in hunting down the supposedly decimated al-Qaida group in seven provinces in Afghanistan.
“Al Qaeda’s core leadership has been decimated,” President Barack Obama declared in 2012, but now the U.S. is busy chasing its leaders around Afghanistan.
Due to the rapid increase in terror activity in the war-torn country, the U.S. is shifting towards a harsher policy where it concerns Pakistan, which is why the U.S. is withholding the $300 million in funds from the Coalition Support Fund.
And it’s not just the Pentagon that is frustrated with Pakistan. Numerous members of Congress are convinced that Pakistan is duplicitous in its dealings with the U.S., namely by taking generous amounts of military support and then turning around and funneling aid to terrorists.
Chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations Bob Corker, who tried earlier this year to block the sale of F-16s to Pakistan, said the country is “working against our interests there through helping support in the ways that they do the Haqqani Network.”
Since Pakistan is so blatant about its support for terror, Corker thinks that the U.S. government will continue distancing itself from the country and withdrawing aid.
Since 2002, the U.S. has given a total of $14 billion in aid to Pakistan.
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