Rand Paul

Rand Paul is a United States senator from Kentucky

Does foreign aid influence the behavior of its recipients? Is Pakistan a better and more reliable ally after receiving over $15 billion in foreign aid?

I'm reminded of what a Soviet ambassador once admitted about Syria: “They take everything from us, except advice.”

The same could be said of Pakistan. After fleecing us for a decade, after allowing Bin Laden to live comfortably in its midst for a decade, I see no evidence of Pakistan taking our advice.

The Haqqani network remains the most serious threat to American soldiers, and Pakistan is either complicit with the Haqqani network or looks the other way.

Pakistan continues to cash our checks, but they laugh at us and ignore our advice.

Pakistan continues to imprison Dr. Shakil Afridi, who, it is said, helped us to locate Bin Laden. Afridi has essentially been given a life sentence. It hardly seems that Pakistan is our ally against terrorism if they punish the one Pakistani brave enough to help us capture the world's most notorious terrorist.



Does Pakistan take our advice when they condemn Christians to death for criticizing the State religion? Does Pakistan take our advice when they condemn to death anyone who converts to Christianity?



Asia Bibi is one of the few remaining Christians in Pakistan, and she has been on death row for five years because of gossipy accusations of criticizing the state religion.



They say money can't buy love. It is also true that money can't buy friendship. I'm reminded of the poor misfit on the playground who offers the other kids money to be his friend. It takes about thirty seconds for children to apprehend the false friendship that devolves into titters and ridicule.



Throughout the world from Saudi Arabia to Qatar to Pakistan, recipients of our aid and arms laugh behind their Keffiyeh. Saudi Arabia imprisons poets and whips the victims of rapes. Saudi Arabia and Qatar are bequeathed our weapons and our latest technology and then redistribute it to radical jihadists throughout the region.



Fragments of U.S. shoulder-fired missiles sold to our "ally" Qatar have been found used against U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan. Yet when I attempted to stop this crazy arms trade with unreliable regimes, the Senate voted 71-24 to continue subsidizing the sale of weapons to our erstwhile ally Pakistan.



The Soviet ambassador was right. Our allies take everything from us but our advice. Foreign aid shows no apparent change in behavior. Couldn't we, for a change, at least try withholding aid to see if they might heed our advice?