Pakistan says it doesn't need US military aid

Pakistan’s Army said Monday that a US military aid cut worth some $800 million won’t affect its ability to conduct combat operations. Analysts call the cuts the strongest indicator yet of the deteriorating nature of the relationship between the two countries and say it could cause the Pakistani military to retreat to a more hostile anti-US position.

"The Army in the past, as well as at present, has conducted successful military operations using its own resources without any external support whatsoever,” Army spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas, told the AFP. He added that the Army had not received any official correspondence from the US on the matter.

General Abbas's statement might be a stretch, but according to Ayesha Siddiqa, military analyst and author of “Military Inc,” the symbolism of the cut is likely to outweigh the operational significance, despite the fact that the cut would account for roughly 40 percent of the $2 billion in military assistance America gives Pakistan annually.

“It’s an indicator of relations getting pushed further apart,” she says, adding that with the cut the US appears to have called the Pakistani’s military’s bluff on a recent statement attributed to Army chief General Kayani in which he said that US military aid to Pakistan would be better spent on civilian purposes.

What would suspending $800 million look like?

Some $300 million of the money that the US is suspending was set to go to Pakistan in the form of reimbursement to the Army for its deployment of troops along the Afghanistan border. Some of the money was also planned to go to Pakistan in the form of equipment, though when the country ordered more than 100 US military trainers to leave the country recently, it refused to accept equipment from the US, according to the New York Times

“It’ll start a debate, let’s see where it goes and how far the Americans want to take it,” says Ms. Siddiqa, adding that a failure by the Pakistani military to comply with US demands to fight terror groups, especially the Haqqani network, more effectively could eventually lead to further cuts and even economic sanctions.

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