Karachi 19 Nov 2018 (Daily Express Tribune)
US President Donald Trump sparked off a Twitter spat with the Pakistani prime minister, Imran Khan, Monday evening when he reiterated the allegations he had leveled in a Fox News interview a day earlier.
Trump accused Pakistan of “doing nothing” for the United States despite receiving “billions of dollars” in aid. He defended his administration’s move to cancel financial aid to Pakistan
“We no longer pay Pakistan billions of dollars because they would take our money and do nothing for us. Bin Laden being a prime example, Afghanistan being another,” the US president wrote on the social networking site.
“They were just one of many countries that take from the United States without giving anything in return. That’s ending!”
In the Fox News interview, Trump accused Pakistan of sheltering Osama bin Laden, the al Qaeda founder who was taken out in a clandestine operation by US special forces in Abbottabad in 2011.
“Of course we should have captured Osama bin Laden long before we did. I pointed him out in my book just before the attack on the World Trade Center. President Clinton famously missed his shot. We paid Pakistan billions of dollars and they never told us he was living there. Fools,” he said in another tweet.
Minutes after Trump’s tweets, Prime Minister Imran Khan also took to the microblogging site to respond to the US president’s new rant. He described Trump’s false assertions as ‘adding insult to the injury’.
“Trump’s false assertions add insult to the injury Pakistan has suffered in the US war on terror in terms of lives lost and destabilised and economic costs,” Imran wrote.
“He [Trump] needs to be informed about historical facts. Pakistan has suffered enough fighting US’s war. Now we will do what is best for our people and our interests,” he added.
The United States has been upset over its military failure in Afghanistan where it has failed to defeat the Taliban despite squandering billions of dollars on the unwinnable war. And instead of finding a political end to the 17-year-long war, the US continues to push for a military victory.
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