Kirk: U.S. should rethink aid to Pakistan

Giving U.S. aid to Pakistan is “naive at best and counterproductive at worst” and should be re-examined with an eye toward possible elimination, Sen. Mark Kirk said Tuesday.

“I’m taking a pretty tough line here on Pakistan,” the Highland Park Republican said.

Kirk, a naval intelligence officer who recently returned from his third assignment to Afghanistan, said he had believed the U.S. should work to advance diplomatically with Pakistan.

But based on what he saw during his two-week tour last month, Kirk said, he’s changed his mind.

Kirk, speaking to a group at Chicago’s Union League Club, believes that “as much as Pakistani officials claim otherwise,” the country’s intelligence service is backing and supporting an increasingly threatening terrorist group, the Haqqani network.

“The Haqqani network kills Americans, attacks the elected government of Afghanistan and remains protected in its Pakistani headquarters,” Kirk said.

“In such an environment, and with our deficits and debt, aid to Pakistan seems naive at best and counterproductive at worst,” he said.

In the interim, Kirk also wants President Barack Obama to push back the withdrawal deadline of U.S. troops from the Afghan battle by several months, from the end of the fiscal year Sept. 30th to this Christmas.

“It’s the right thing to do militarily and politically,” Kirk said, saying November and December are considered the Taliban’s “key offensive months” and that extending the troop withdrawal would reduce the chance of radical Islamic extremists winning key battles in 2012.

Kirk: U.S. should rethink aid to Pakistan