WASHINGTON: Official records from Washington have dealt a blow to claims that Pakistan is “a slave of dollars”, and had fought wars on the US funded money.
According to the US Congressional Research Service and USAID’s Greenbook, from 1946 to 2024 the top 10 recipients of US economic and military aid were Israel, Egypt, Afghanistan, South Vietnam, South Korea, Iraq, Ukraine, Jordan, Turkey, and Vietnam. Pakistan’s name does not appear anywhere on this list.
Israel was the top recipient with near $310 billion while Afghanistan took Rs $160 billion.
Even if we look only at aid during the “War on Terror” after 2001, Afghanistan leads by far. SIGAR reports that from 2002 to 2021, Afghanistan received $145–160 billion, while Pakistan, including Coalition Support Fund and other aid, received around $33 billion, roughly four times less.
Experts and some circles repeatedly claim that Pakistan fights wars for dollars. The truth is, Pakistan sacrificed over 80,000 civilians and 9,000 military personnel, suffered more than $130 billion in economic losses, and hosted over 3.5 million Afghan refugees, the cost of which was never fully covered by the international community.
Pakistan’s sacrifices were for national security and sovereignty, not for dollars. Operations like Zarb-e-Azb, Radd-ul-Fasaad, and the FATA merger were carried out for the country’s survival, not to please the US.
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