ISLAMAB:Deteriorating Pakistan situation is of vital importance for Afghanistan peace, US special envoy Richard Holbrooke said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal.
"If Afghanistan had the best government on earth, a drug-free culture and no corruption it would still be unstable if the situation in Pakistan remained as it is today.
That is an indisputable fact, and that is the core of the dilemma that the Western nations, the NATO alliance, face today," Holbrook said.
Take the dilemma a logical step further, I suggest. The terrorists who threaten America are in Pakistan, but the US fights the Afghan Taliban, who don't. "That's a fair point," added Holbrooke, "but the reason for fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan is clear: The Taliban are the frontrunners for al Qaeda. If they succeed in Afghanistan, without any shadow of a doubt, al Qaeda would move back into Afghanistan, set up a larger presence, recruit more people and pursue its objectives against the United States even more aggressively."
Among Pakistani politicians, Zardari speaks most clearly about the threat emanating from the country's west, noting the assassination in late 2007 of his wife, former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. But he is politically weak, and sounds disinclined to push the military to wage war against the Pashtun tribes in the mountains.
Praising President Zardari's efforts he said, "the president deserves credit for his personal courage" in holding the job. He welcomes the "statesmanlike" resolution of a recent political feud with rival Nawaz Sharif over the reinstatement of judges. The fight could have resulted, he says, in "civil war on the one hand or assassinations on the other."
"We are well aware of these accusations," says Holbrooke. "But our experience with [Pakistani Army chief, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez] Kayani does not support them. We deal with him with respect and with the assumption that he is a serious person doing the best he can under difficult circumstances."
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