We have already committed $90 Million. Pakistan is the most dangerous issue in the world today - a weak government that is the best hope they have, several terrorist groups and nuclear weapons - and now a major disaster. Hollbrooke this morning referred to flooded land in Pakistan as covering an area the size of Italy.
Amid United Nations reports of lagging aid for the Pakistan floods, the United States is set to increase aid to Pakistan to $150 million following the worst disaster in the country’s history, Sen. John Kerry (D) of Massachusetts announced on Thursday.
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Speaking from the Ghazi airforce base where American military aircraft are making deployments into flood-affected territory in the north-west, such as the Swat Valley, he stressed that the US did not wish to see extremists profiting from the disaster. “We don't want additional jihadists, extremists coming out of a crisis,” he said.
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Senator Kerry, who co-authored a $7.5 billion civilian aid bill to Pakistan and heads the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, arrived in Pakistan late Wednesday and is set to meet the country’s Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani and beleaguered President Asif Ali Zardari, today. He is the first high-ranking US politician to visit the region after the disaster struck.
His visit serves the dual purpose of demonstrating US commitment to a country that it views as vital to its regional strategic interests, and cajoling other nations into increasing their levels of aid as the UN holds an emergency meeting in New York to call for more international aid. So far, the UN says it has raised half of the $460 million requested.
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Asia-South-Central/2010/0819/Pakistan-floods-As-international-aid-lags-US-announces-increase