Financial Crisis Impacting Fight Against AQ Posted by Ilan Goldenberg

National security types (myself included) have been saying since the financial crisis began that it will have implications for our national security.  To prove my point, here is a very concrete example of how the financial turmoil is impacting our security.

Apparently Pakistan has found itself in some economic trouble and is turning to China for help. 

Pakistan has reached a critical new phase in its long-deteriorating financial situation, as investor flight and bleeding of national reserves force the country to scramble for international funds to shore up its economy. With the global financial crisis draining coffers in the United States and Europe, the key U.S. ally in the war on terrorism is seeking help from an old friend newly flush with cash: China...

Pakistan is going to the Chinese now "because you go to the guys with the money," a senior International Monetary Fund official said. "And right now, the Chinese are the ones with the money."

Right here we have a case where the global financial crisis is directly impacting our ability to fight Al Qaeda.  The intelligence community has reportedly concluded that one of the reasons we have not been able to convince the Pakistani military and government to go after Al Qaeda in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas is because of how unpopular the U.S. is in Pakistan.  As intelligence officials have explained:

The Pakistani military is reluctant to launch an all-out campaign against the Islamists in part because of popular opposition to continuing the cooperation with the U.S. that began under Pervez Musharraf, the U.S.-backed former president, after the 9/11 attacks.

This is exactly the type of situation where if the U.S. had the funds to come in and help the Pakistani economy it could benefit tremendously.  In 2005, after the earthquake in Pakistan that killed tens of thousands of people the United States provided humanitarian relief and saw its popularity in Pakistan rise dramatically.  A similar effort to help Pakistan's economy would be popular in the country and would likely generate more political cover for the Pakistani government to then take serious action in the FATA. Moreover, providing the Pakistani Government with such assistance would give the U.S. greater leverage in asking the Pakistanis to get tougher on Al Qaeda in return.

To summarize.  There is broad agreement in the U.S. intelligence and counter-terrorism community that any major Al Qaeda attack on the U.S. homeland would be coordinated out of the FATA and that this is the greatest direct threat to the U.S. homeland.  But as a result of the financial crisis we are missing an important opportunity to do something about it.  That is a big deal.

Comments

[James Lamond]

A similar- albeit less dangerous- example is the fact that Iceland went to Russia and Scandinavia for a loan to help them through the financial crisis, after finding the U.S. unable to help.

[Peace]

This is once again an example of the Bush administration relying too much on military power and not enough on economic power. Bush has weakened the economy through his dangerous economic policies and spending hundreds of billions of dollars in Iraq without any tax hikes. As a result there is no money around to stabilize or exert US influence in places like Pakistan.

[Dan Kervick]

And yet has anyone at Democracy Arsenal of the National Security Network taken a strong stand against the private capital-loving, free market-enamored, global neoliberal project pushed by Washington for some decades now, a project that has brought us the poorly regulated global financial pyramid of phony paper value that is now in crisis, and that you are now so concerned about? Has anyone here taken a strong stand on economic matters of any kind? Most of you seem to be more than content to function as the civil society auxiliary of the global corporatist project of the American establishment.

So hey, tough news about your terrorism war.

[Payday Loan Advocate]

The eyes of the American nation were fixed upon Hempstead, New York, on Wednesday, October 14th, 2008, for the third and final U.S. Presidential Debate. The Democratic candidate, Sen. Barack Obama, of Illinois, went into the debate with an eight point lead, and he was indeed content with it. The Republican candidate, Sen. John McCain brought it hard to his opponent, challenging his expertise, character, judgment and proposed policies. Obama’s position on the economic policies of the last eight years was far more critical than McCain’s, though he maintained that he is “not President Bush.” Both pledged that they would make cuts in the federal budget, McCain pledging to enact an “across the board spending freeze,” and take a hatchet to some programs whilst using a scalpel on others. Obama’s take was to “go through the federal budget page by page, line by line” in order to cut out those programs that are dysfunctional. Both of the candidates pledged to bring the change that America needs, but what does that mean? For instance, many politicians want to do away completely with the payday loans industry. Should they succeed, it will mean the end of the freedom to choose for the consumer, and the triumph of certain interest groups (the banks and credit unions, who have gotten themselves in enough trouble already) over the freedom of we, the American People.
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