An influential United States lawmaker has unveiled a long-term plan to move the US policy on Pakistan from "a Musharraf policy to a Pakistan policy that gives the moderate majority a chance to succeed."
Senator Joe Biden, the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee and a presidential candidate seeking the Democratic nomination, said he believed that beyond the current crisis in Pakistan lurks a far deeper problem. "The relationship between the US and Pakistan is largely transactional -- and this transaction isn't working for either party," he said.
Biden argued that the US must move beyond this transaction relationship -- the exchange of aid for services -- to the normal, functional relationship it enjoys with all of its other military allies and friendly nation.
"We've got to move from a policy concentrated on one man -- President Musharraf -- to a policy centered on an entire people, the people of Pakistan," he added.
Biden proposed the approach rooted in four-parts, starting with the US tripling its non-security aid to Pakistan to $1.5 billion annually for at least a decade.
He said this aid will be unconditioned and it will be the US's pledge to the Pakistani people that instead of funding military hardware, it would build schools, clinics and roads.
Biden said secondly, the US must condition security aid on performance, where "we should base our security aid on clear results," and bemoaned that "the US is now spending well over $1 billion annually, and it's not clear we're getting our money's worth."
The third part of his plan called for Washington to help Pakistan enjoy a democracy dividend, where the first year of democratic rile should bring an additional $1 billion -- above the $1.5 billion non-security aid baseline.
He supported tying future non-security aid -- again, above the guaranteed baseline -- to Pakistan's progress in developing democratic institutions and meeting good-governance norms.
Finally, Biden said the US must engage the Pakistani people -- not their rulers -- and said, "This should involve everything from improved public diplomacy and educational exchanges to high impact projects that actually change people's lives."
The lawmaker, who represents Delaware, predicted that his plan will fundamentally and positively shift the dynamic between the US and Pakistan, and explained, that a drastic increase in non-security aid, guaranteed for a long period, would help persuade Pakistan's people that America is an all-weather friend and Pakistan's leaders that America is a reliable ally.
Currently, according to Biden, the perception and suspicion among the majority of Pakistanis was that "our support is purely tactical."
"They point to the aid cut-off that followed the fall of the Soviet Union, to our refusal to deliver or refund purchased jets (F-16 fighter aircraft) in the 1990s, to our blossoming relationship with rival India."
Biden said many Pakistanis believe that the moment Osama bin Laden is gone, US interest will go with him.
But, he argued that if the US aid makes a real difference in people's lives, the results are powerful, and this is why "to have a real impact on a nation of 165 million, we'll have to raise our spending dramatically. A baseline of $1.5 billion annually, for a decade, is a reasonable place to start."
Biden said, "That might sound like a lot -- but it's about what we spend every week in Iraq."
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