Rand Paul’s Half Right Pander on Pakistan

U.S. Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) wants to end U.S. aid to Pakistan. A sound stance by any peace measure even if one doesn’t share the libertarian bent of Antiwar.com’s editors. Foreign aid, a combination of bribes, blood money and welfare, is a fuel of the war machine, corrupting every thing it touches.

Even the most basic humanity toward innocent children.

The Dr. Shakil Afridi whom Dr. Rand Paul praises as a hero for his assistance in helping the U.S. capture and kill Osama bin Laden “concoct[ed] a pretextual vaccination program, whereby Pakistani children would be injected with a single Hepatitis B vaccine, with the hope of gaining access to the Abbottabad house where the CIA believed bin Laden was located. The plan was that, under the ruse of vaccinating the children in that province, he would obtain DNA samples that could confirm the presence in the suspected house of the bin Laden family.”

According to Antiwar.com’s Jason Ditz, “Afridi gave real doses of vaccinations to the children, but it was such an afterthought that they never bothered to provide any follow-up doses, so effectively none of the children were actually vaccinated.”

Now, as a result of Dr. Afridi’s espionage, real doctors doing work in Pakistan are are no longer trusted and are being threatened. Two gunmen in the Pakistani city of Karachi opened fire today on a doctor from the World Health Organization who actually wished to vaccinate children.

One should praise Rand Paul for honoring his oath to the Constitution by rejecting foreign aid. No cheer shall be found however in disregarding this oath when doing right.