US cannot buy Pakistan's support: senator

WASHINGTON — A senior US senator on Tuesday expressed doubts about plans for US economic aid to Pakistan, saying Islamabad needed to prove it was determined to fight against extremists on its soil.
"If I thought we could buy stability, I would buy it," Democratic Senator Carl Levin told reporters.
But, he said, "I don?t think we can buy Pakistan?s support."
The Pakistani government must view the struggle against Islamists operating on its border with Afghanistan as in its own interest, and not only in the interest of Kabul or Washington, the Michigan senator said.
"What I need to see is the policy of the Pakistan government as being clear as to what they believe is in their interests," Levin said, adding: "I haven't seen that yet."
The skeptical tone from President Barack Obama's fellow Democrat, the influential chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, came only days after Obama presented a new strategy for the Afghan war that includes 1.5 billion annually in aid for Pakistan over five years.
Accusing Islamabad of appeasing Islamist militants, Levin said, "I have seen too much effort on their part to buy peace with people who I don?t think you can buy peace with."
Levin said it would be risky to rely too heavily on Pakistan to defeat insurgents in Afghanistan.
"If we depend on Pakistan to slow down the flow of insurgents into Afghanistan, we are relying on a very thin reed. So Afghanistan must defend its own border, and not rely on Pakistan for border control," he said.
His comments came a day after insurgents stormed a police academy near Lahore, leaving eight police recruits dead in the latest sign of rising militant violence in Pakistan.
Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud claimed responsibility for the deadly assault, saying it was in retaliation for US drone strikes on fellow militants.
With insurgents in Afghanistan led and backed by hardline militants in tribal areas over the border in Pakistan, the United States has warned Islamabad that in return for economic and military aid it must crack down on Islamist groups.
The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, said on Tuesday aid to Pakistan needed to be linked to concrete action but expressed confidence that the country's military grasped the nature of the threat within its borders.
"The idea of a relationship between support and outcome certainly is one that I support," Mullen told a meeting of defense ministers from Central and South Asia outside of Washington.
He said the Pakistani military leadership, including chief of staff General Ashfaq Kayani, understood that the militants posed a threat to Pakistan itself.
"I have great confidence in General Kayani and in the Pakistani military," said Mullen, who holds frequent talks with his Pakistani counterpart.
Despite the deployment of more than 100,000 troops, Pakistan has been unable to stop a wave of attacks by Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked militants that have killed 1,700 since July 2007.