On Wednesday, President Barack Obama is scheduled to meet with Pakistan leaders and Afghanistan leaders as well. The reason behind the gathering is to discuss strategy for defeating al Qaeda.
However, both the Afghani President, Hamid Karzai, and the Pakistani President, Asif Ali Zardari, have been highly criticized by the American government. In addition, many in Obama’s administration question just how much trust can be placed in the two men and their nations.
On the flip side, neither of the two Middle Eastern nations are too pleased with Obama’s plans to ship troops into their homelands. Obama looks to make the meeting his chance to explain his reasoning in entering the nations and to discuss the current governmental situations.
Another one of Obama’s goals is to convince Pakistan officials to not allow the Taliban to use Pakistani land to attack Afghanistan. The Taliban is making way to Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan, which many in the United States government see as a reason for concern.
Over the previous eight years, the United States has provided Islamabad, Pakistan with $10 billion in aid. However, America is still weary on Pakistan’s position towards al Qaeda. The United States has both said good things of the Pakistani military and made accusations that it was assisting al Qaeda.
Obama is looking to add to that aid by providing $1.5 billion every year for the next five years to stimulate civilian life in Pakistan.
Congress has gone even farther. Senators John Kerry and Richard Lugar presented a bill on Monday that would provide $2.3 billion to Pakistan.
Despite the unhappiness with the Pakistani connections to the Taliban and al Qaeda and the Pakistanis lack of full devotion to removing both terrorist organizations, the Obama administration is still focused on changing things for the better for the nation.
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