{"id":76879,"date":"2018-01-02T10:15:38","date_gmt":"2018-01-02T15:15:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=76879"},"modified":"2018-01-02T10:15:38","modified_gmt":"2018-01-02T15:15:38","slug":"trump-targets-pakistan-with-tweets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=76879","title":{"rendered":"Trump targets Pakistan with tweets"},"content":{"rendered":"

President Trump threatened to withhold US taxpayers dollars from Pakistan because, he claims, Pakistan is aiding the Taliban by giving them a chance to rearm and rest across their border. According to Stars & Stripes<\/a>;<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s New Year\u2019s Day tweet comes as the administration, frustrated by Pakistan\u2019s unwillingness to take on terrorist groups, is considering withholding $255 million in aid, The New York Times reported last week. Officials told the newspaper that a decision was expected in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n

The administration told Congress in August it was holding back the $255 million until Islamabad did more to fight terrorism. In July, the Pentagon withheld $50 million in aid after Defense Secretary James Mattis told Congress he would not certify that Pakistan had done enough to fight the Haqqani network, a brutal branch of the Taliban.<\/p>\n

Terrorist exploitation of outside sanctuaries is viewed by Gen. John W. Nicholson, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, as the single greatest threat to the U.S.-led coalition campaign there, according to the Defense Department\u2019s biannual country report, released last month.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In another Stars & Stripes<\/a> article, Afghans praise Trump’s hard line against Pakistan;<\/p>\n

Former Afghan President Hamid Karzai, writing on Twitter, greeted Trump\u2019s remarks as \u201cvindication that the war on terror is not in bombing Afghan villages and homes but in the sanctuaries beyond Afghanistan.\u201d<\/p>\n

Karzai proposed forming a regional coalition to pressure Pakistan \u201cto bring peace to … the entire region.\u201d<\/p>\n

While U.S. officials have said cooperation with Pakistan is critical to efforts in the region, the relationship has chilled since May 2011, when al-Qaida founder Osama bin Laden was found living near a major military facility in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad, where he had apparently enjoyed sanctuary for years.<\/p>\n

A pillar of Trump\u2019s new regional strategy calls for greater pressure on Islamabad to eliminate such havens. Pakistan \u201chas much to lose by continuing to harbor criminals and terrorists,\u201d the president said when announcing his strategy in August.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The last time Pakistan tried to crack down on the Taliban in their tribal areas, they had a real shooting war on their hands which caused them to back off. Maybe with cash on the line, they’ll be able to draw on a little testicular fortitude and commit to the war against terrorists.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

President Trump threatened to withhold US taxpayers dollars from Pakistan because, he claims, Pakistan is aiding … Trump targets Pakistan with tweets<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-76879","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-terror-war"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76879","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=76879"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76879\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=76879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=76879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=76879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}