A few days ago, Pervez Musharraf declared a state of emergency in Pakistan… Scheduled elections have been postponed. Political opponents have been rounded up. The American response? “Ah… umm. Hmmm. Do you think maybe you could, ahem, if it’s not too much trouble, uhh, maybe not… well… Never mind.”
Why the tepid response? He’s an ally. He’s received approximately $11 billion from the United States since 2001, ostensibly to help fight the war on terror. Never mind that Pakistan probably supplied the nuclear technology that made North Korea such an interesting place these past few months; never mind that Pakistan’s secret services seem to play an ambiguous role in the “War on Terror.”
That $11 billion works out to roughly $37 for every man, woman, and child in the United States. Not such a big deal in a country where GDP per capita is $42,000. But it works out to $67 per capita in Pakistan — a pretty big deal in a country where annual income is roughly $720 per capita.
But that is trivial. Look what the U.S. has spent on its Iraq effort: more than $467,000,000,000. Yes. Four. Hundred. Sixty. Seven. Billion. BILLION.
That works out to $1550 and change for every man, woman and child in the United States. Again, Americans can afford this: the money might better have been spent on schools, healthcare, roads, bridges, social security…
… but then think about what this might have done in Iraq. There are roughly 27 million people in Iraq. We could have given everyone in Iraq — everyone — more than $17,000. That in a country whose per capita income has been estimated at a few hundred dollars a year.
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