US plays old games again

History repeats itself:

[quote]The US government has a most convenient dual approach towards states they need but really do not want to see them being strengthened substantively. In such cases, the US President reaches out in “friendship”, hosting the leadership of that state and praising the “ally’s” unstinting support in furthering US policies — often, of course, defined in terms of “international” policies. The US President and his cabinet members offer such allies all manner of attractive aid and assistance, so the ally really feels that this time round its sincerity and living up to its side of the bargain have been truly understood, appreciated and, therefore, reciprocated! It is only when the nitty-gritty of the so-called reciprocity is set in motion that the ally discovers that the US Congress — that “monster” dominated by hostile interests — is not going along with the US President and is setting all manner of conditionalities to the terms of reciprocity. By this time, in most cases, the ally has delivered all it had to and so finds itself “betrayed” once again.

….For Pakistan, there is a clear sense of deja vu in the developments that have followed President Musharraf’s visit to the US where he was awarded the special US Presidential honour of being a guest at Camp David.

….No sooner had the Pakistan’s President left, then Congress came into its own. The proposed US Millennium Challenge Account Bill, under which the US is supposed to provide the support President Bush committed to President Musharraf at Camp David, was ravaged by the House of Representatives. Even as the Bush Administration never spoke of any conditionalities to the aid package agreed to during the Pakistani Presidential visit to Camp David, the US House of Representatives attached all manner of intrusive conditionalities and these were to be fulfilled every year by the US President before Pakistan could get any part of the aid package!

>>[url=http://www.jang.com.pk/thenews/jul2003-daily/23-07-2003/oped/o3.htm]The News: Shireen M Mazari[/url] [/quote]

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