Obama's Afghan strategy hit by deaths and dissent

www.independent.co.uk


The loss of eight more American soldiers yesterday, the resignation of a highly regarded US Foreign Service officer, and new tensions over next week's Afghan election run-off have combined to intensify pressure on Barack Obama as he edges towards a crucial decision on a major increase in US troop strength in Afghanistan.

On Friday the President is to hold a further meeting with his military chiefs. He will be doing so at the end of the bloodiest single month in the conflict. The latest deaths bring to 55 the number of troops already killed in October, more than the previous high of 51 in August. They came the day after 14 US personnel died in separate helicopter accidents. In all more than 900 US soldiers have so far lost their lives in an eight-year war whose end is not in sight.

For Matthew Hoh, the sacrifice has simply become so pointless that he felt no alternative other than to become the first US diplomat known to have resigned over the war, citing reasons that reflect not just his own doubts over the conflict, but those of an increasingly disillusioned American public.

"I have lost understanding of, and confidence in, the strategic purposes of the United States presence in Afghanistan," says the resignation letter of the former Marine captain and Iraq veteran, who joined the State Department to work as the top American official in Zabul province in eastern Afghanistan, close to the border with Pakistan.

The US involvement was simply fuelling the insurgency, Mr Hoh wrote, and was causing American servicemen to die "in what is essentially a far-off civil war", or more accurately a number of small local wars in which the sides are united only in their resentment of a foreign intruder. His problem was not how Washington was pursuing the war – the issue Mr Obama is grappling with in round after round of consultations with his top national security and military advisers – "but why and to what end" his country was fighting it in the first place.

The resignation, revealed yesterday in The Washington Post, has sent shockwaves through the administration, which made repeated and strenuous efforts to change Mr Hoh's mind – including a one-on-one meeting with Richard Holbrooke, the special envoy for Afghanistan. "We took his letter very seriously," Mr Holbrooke told the newspaper. He described Mr Hoh as a good officer, and admitting that he shared much of the diplomat's analysis, although not his conclusion.

Tellingly, Mr Hoh emphasises he is no "peacenik or pot-smoking hippie who wants everyone to be in love". As he made clear to the Post, he is a tough former professional soldier, who believes the Taliban and al-Q'aida have "plenty of dudes who need to be killed", and the evidence of his personal courage makes him a difficult target for pro-war voices. Mr Hoh came home from Iraq with citations for "uncommon bravery".

Nor was he a mere grunt: in his time as a Defence Department civilian working on reconstruction in Tikrit, Iraq, he employed up to 5,000 people and handled millions of dollars in cash. Yet despite that experience, he said the weeks spent considering his decision and drafting the four-page resignation letter left him feeling "physically nauseous".

Later this week the now-resigned diplomat will meet with the chief foreign policy adviser of the Vice-President Joe Biden, the leading advocate in the administration of the approach favoured by Mr Hoh: a greater focus on Pakistan coupled with a scaled-down US combat presence in Afghanistan. "We have to draw the line somewhere, and say this is their problem to solve."

Complicating matters further is the new dispute over the election run-off, after Abdullah Abdullah, the challenger to the incumbent president Hamid Karzai, demanded the dismissal of the country's top election officer. Mr Abdullah, a former foreign minister, maintains that the supposedly neutral official could not guarantee a clean election, after the widespread fraud that marred the initial vote in August.

But yesterday Mr Karzai rejected that demand and others, with little sign of significant change in the practical organisation of the run-off, scheduled for 7 November. In retaliation, Mr Abdullah has threatened to boycott the vote – a move that would all but destroy the chances of Afghanistan gaining a leader with genuine national legitimacy, a declared pre-condition of a boost in US troop strength.

The request submitted by General Stanley McChrystal, the top allied commander in Afghanistan, reportedly seeks an increase of up to 40,000 men from the currently planned ceiling of 68,000. Failing that, the general argues, the war might to all intents be lost within a year.

Mr Obama has said he will not be rushed, and will make up his mind only when the election produces a clear-cut, accepted winner. In the meantime relations are by all accounts highly strained between the Obama team and Mr Karzai. The latter's agreement to accept a run-off was secured not by Mr Holbrooke, who reportedly has clashed with the Afghan President, but by the visiting John Kerry, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Hoh's resignation letter: 'This reminds me horribly of Vietnam'

"In the course of my five months of service in Afghanistan... I have lost understanding of and confidence in the strategic purpose of the United States' presence in Afghanistan

"My resignation is based not upon how we are pursuing the war, but why and to what end... I fail to see the value or worth in continued US casualties... in support of the Afghan government in what is, truly, a 35-year-old civil war

"Like the Soviets we continue to bolster a failing state, while encouraging an ideology and system of government unknown and unwanted by its people

"If the history of Afghanistan is one great stage play, the United States is no more than a supporting actor, among several previously, in a tragedy that... has violently and savagely pitted the urban, secular, educated and modern of Afghanistan against the rural, religious, illiterate and traditional.

"The Pashtun insurgency... is fed by what is perceived by the Pashtun people as a continued and sustained assault, going back centuries, on Pashtun land, culture, traditions and religion by internal and external enemies. The US and Nato presence and operations... provide an occupation force against which the insurgency is justified

"The bulk of the insurgency fights not for the white banner of the Taliban, but... against the presence of foreign soldiers and taxes

"[This] reminds me horribly of our involvement with South Vietnam... against an insurgency we arrogantly and ignorantly mistook as a rival to our own Cold War ideology."

Bloodiest month: US losses in October

27 October 2009 Eight American troops die in two separate bomb attacks in southern Afghanistan, making October the deadliest month of the war for US forces since the 2001 invasion to oust the Taliban.

26 October 2009 Eleven American soldiers are killed in separate helicopter crashes. One helicopter goes down in western Afghanistan, killing seven soldiers and three civilians working for the US government. In a separate incident in the south, two other US choppers collide in flight, killing four American troops.

3 October 2009 Eight US soldiers are killed when their outpost in Kamdesh, Nuristan, is attacked by as many as 300 militants. Another soldier dies in Wardak province when a bomb detonates as he attempts to disarm it.

The US military has suffered 905 fatalities since the invasion of October 2001.

Waziristan IDPs

PESHAWAR: Certain inhabitants of South Waziristan have complained that the government and the nation had ignored them despite the fact that they have been suffering due to the so-called ‘war against terror’ since June 2002. “We appreciate the gesture shown by the government and public while hosting the internally displaced persons (IDPs) from Swat. But at the same time we question as to why we have been ignored even though we were displaced thrice from our hometowns?” complained Mushtaq Ahmad Wazir, the president of Wana Welfare Association (WaWA), through a letter sent to the top political leaders of the country, civil society organizations and media. It recalled how the South Waziristanis had been suffering since the first military operation in Wana on June 26, 2002. “We were accused of being supporters of terrorists. Our elders who tried to protest against the government were killed. The entire population was tortured by imposing restrictions on us,” the letter recalled. Another military operation was launched in the area, the letter reminded, in 2004 when jets were used for shelling and people were forced to move to safer places. “The people of Wana had never heard about kidnapping for ransom but Uzbeks and Chechens hiding in the area played havoc with the peace of the area since December 2004. They blew up schools, government offices, and kidnapped and killed local elders. The bazaars were looted, orchards of apples destroyed and houses were ruined,” it stated. The one-page letter in Urdu added that military operation was launched against the foreigners and their supporters once again in March 2007, forcing the people to flee for their lives. “Today tribesmen congratulate each other once a military convoy safely passes through their village. Shelling from the cannons and jets as well as drone attacks has become the order of the day,” narrated Mushtaq Wazir. The letter complained of suspension of power supply to the area for the past six months and closure of roads since long. The people have to reach the nearby Dera Ismail Khan via Zhob in Balochistan. The journey not only causes them severe fatigue but also costs Rs 1500 instead of Rs150 if undertaken by the old route from Wana to Dera Ismail Khan. “We appreciate how the government, the political parties, civil society organizations and media supported the IDPs from Swat. But we want to ask whether the people of Waziristan are not Pakistanis and Muslims? Don’t they need the basic requirements in their tents after being dislocated from their homes to secure their lives and loved ones?” it asked. The tribesmen complained that a team of psychiatrists and psychologists was immediately sent to treat the students of a school in Lahore after a blast in the area but on the other hand the government never did anything significant for 16,000 affected students of Wana. “We want the government and all concerned to take practical measures so that our coming generation does not suffer due to war, forced migration and drone attacks. Instead they should be given due rights of education, economic stability and peace,” the letter concluded by stressing upon the government and civil society to concentrate on promotion of education in Waziristan and rest of the country to permanently end their sufferings.

Waziristan offensive is pivotal test for army, residents

Washington Post

DERA ISMAIL KHAN, PAKISTAN -- As Pakistan's army battles with guns and jets to wrest control of the restive South Waziristan region from the Taliban, it remains unclear whether the military will have another kind of ammunition it desperately needs: the support of people who have lived in the militants' grip for years.

Among refugees who were jostling for donated blankets in this dusty frontier town last week, few dared discuss the Taliban fighters controlling their villages. Several whispered that there was no graver offense than speaking against the Taliban, and seemed fearful that breaching that rule would haunt them once the offensive -- which several referred to as an artificial "drama" cooked up to satisfy the U.S. -- was over.

"The operation is a joke just to please the foreign masters," said Saidalam Mehsud, 59, a burly driver. "Whenever the dollars are floating into Pakistan, such operations are carried out."

In the past week, refugees said, their doubts about the offensive intensified because they had seen little evidence of the ground operation Pakistan's military says has killed nearly 200 insurgents. While many said shells and bombs had been raining on the hilly terrain all week, some hitting civilian houses, none said they had seen government soldiers.

Instead, masked and armed militants were roaming with apparent ease and digging trenches, the refugees said. Security analysts say soldiers are moving cautiously, partly to avoid civilian casualties, and the military says it has captured key militant hideouts.

The offensive is a pivotal test for Pakistan. The United States is giving unprecedented aid to Pakistan, but is also pressuring the government here to clamp down on militant Islamist groups that attack both Pakistani targets and U.S. forces in Afghanistan. Pakistani officials say South Waziristan is the refuge for one group of Pakistani Taliban, led by Hakimullah Mehsud, that has orchestrated a string of recent attacks on high-profile targets across the country.

Hundreds of thousands of civilians have traversed craggy terrain to flee the nearly two-week-old offensive. Researchers and people familiar with the long neglected, semi-autonomous tribal area say many of South Waziristan's fiercely independent Pashtun residents desperately want the Taliban to go. But the Taliban of South Waziristan are a deeply entrenched and organized group that has had years to force locals into submission.

"They will only rise against the Taliban when they are convinced the government means business," said Saifullah Mehsud, director of the FATA Research Center in Islamabad, which studies Pakistan's tribal areas. "But they have never been convinced."

For half a dozen years, a stew of Pakistani and foreign fighters has exerted near complete control in the region. Bearded fighters travel ridges in convoys, while local commanders police villages and the rank-and-file paste up posters pronouncing the latest religious edicts.

The militancy has shattered the economy, and at least half of South Waziristan's 500,000 people had moved from the area by July, according to the International Crisis Group. Those who remain live in forced compliance, with many families offering at least one son to the Taliban to avoid drawing suspicion, researchers said. Other poor young men eagerly sign up, lured by the promise of guns, travel in SUVs and martyrdom. Amid the lines of refugees in Dera Ismail Khan, some delicately described Taliban rule as merely strict.

"The Taliban are bad for criminals and outlaws," farm worker Saidullah Khan, 37, said on a recent evening. "The Taliban cause no problems for me or other common people."

Others bold enough to speak to a journalist said the situation in South Waziristan was dire. During the Taliban's reign, roads have deteriorated and most schools have shut, residents said. Even worse, some residents said, the hard-line version of Islam favored by the Taliban has destroyed a rich Pashtun culture. Traditional drumming is banned, stifling the vibrant weddings and elaborate funerals that were once common.

But the most profound effect, they said, is the quiet, daily task of projecting loyalty to the Taliban.

"There is constant fear in our minds," said Ali Mohammed, a 35-year-old out-of-work teacher, who said he had recently come across a corpse in a field near his militant-riddled town, Makeen, from which he drew a lesson: "If they take you as an opponent or a spy, then they will punish you -- very brutally."

One businessman who fled last week to Peshawar, who did not want his name published out of fear for his life, said he had carefully carved out a narrow space to avoid Taliban wrath. He is one of the few male residents without a beard, but he dutifully attends the funerals of suicide bombers. And when he runs into fighters, he praises Baitullah Mehsud, the former Taliban chief who was killed by a U.S. drone strike in August, as a martyr and the "only big tree under which we were sheltered."

Privately, though, the businessman said he had decided the insurgents were mostly thugs, not religious purists. Worried his two adolescent sons might think otherwise, he regularly exhorts them to reject the Taliban allure.

"I am telling them, 'If you are in favor of jihad, okay, but think about it -- have these mullahs preaching to you also gone for jihad?'" the 35-year-old, boom-voiced man said in an interview in Peshawar. "This I cannot say publicly, or I would be killed."

Khadim Hussain, who researches Pakistan's tribal belt at an Islamabad-based think tank, said that a recent survey he directed in the region revealed widespread dislike for the Taliban's extremist ideology. About 550 informal interviews with residents showed most favor targeted attacks on insurgents, he said.

Even if the military offensive succeeds, some South Waziristan natives said they feared it would simply usher in a new set of outlaw rulers. The military acknowledges that it has struck deals with two other militant factions, both Mehsud rivals who focus their attacks in Afghanistan. Displacing the Taliban might empower those groups, some analysts said.

"We are silent in this whole drama. But that does not mean we are Taliban," said Mohammed, the out-of-work teacher who spoke openly only inside a car, away from a packed refugee registration point here.

If the military offensive flushed out the Taliban, some observers said, the people of South Waziristan would work to hold their ground. For now, they are crammed into rented homes outside the battle lines, waiting with hushed, almost muted hope.

"We are very weak," said Gulzada Khan, 68, a white-bearded elder in a soiled striped turban who fled to Dera Ismail Khan. "It is the worst time in my life. We were proud, respectful people. We never bowed down to anyone. Now I think we have lost that glory."

Pressure From U.S. Strains Ties With Pakistan

NewYorkTimes
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — The Obama administration is putting pressure on Pakistan to eliminate Taliban and Qaeda militants from the country’s tribal areas, but the push is straining the delicate relations between the allies, Pakistani and Western officials say.

The Pakistani military’s recent heavy offensive in South Waziristan has pleased the Americans, but it left large parts of Pakistan under siege, as militants once sequestered in the country’s tribal areas take their war to Pakistan’s cities. Many Pakistanis blame the United States for the country’s rising instability.

When Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton arrives in Pakistan this week, as she is scheduled to do, she will find a nuclear-armed state consumed by doubts about the value of the alliance with the United States and resentful of ever-rising American demands to do more, the officials said.

The United States is also struggling to address Pakistan’s concerns over the conditions imposed on a new American aid package of $7.5 billion over five years that the Pakistani military denounced as designed to interfere in the country’s internal affairs.

The Obama administration has endorsed the Pakistani Army’s recent offensive in South Waziristan, suggesting it showed overdue resolve. But it has also raised concerns about the Pakistani Army’s long-term objectives. How South Waziristan plays out may prove to be a bellwether for an alliance of increasingly divergent interests.

The special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard C. Holbrooke, said Friday that the Obama administration would be trying to find out whether the army was simply “dispersing” the militants or “destroying” them, as the United States would like.

From the number of troops in South Waziristan, it was not clear that the army wanted to “finish the task,” said a Western military attaché, who spoke on the condition of anonymity according to diplomatic protocol.

The army would not take over South Waziristan as it had the Swat Valley, where the military is now an occupying force after conducting a campaign in the spring and summer that pushed the Taliban out, the officials said.

It remains to be seen how the campaign will play out in a region where the army has failed in the past, analysts said. The army has sent about 28,000 soldiers to South Waziristan to take on about 10,000 guerrillas, a relatively low ratio, according to military specialists.

In all, of the roughly 28,000 soldiers, there are probably about 11,000 army infantrymen, said Javed Hussain, a retired Pakistani Army brigadier. Instead of a ratio of one to one, he said, the ratio should be at least five to one.

The army appeared to have no plans to occupy South Waziristan, but rather to cut the militants “to size,” said Tariq Fatemi, who served briefly as Pakistan’s ambassador to the United States in 1999.

With the uncertainty of American plans in Afghanistan, and the strong sentiment in Pakistan that India was “up to no good” in the restive province of Baluchistan and the tribal areas, Mr. Fatemi said, the army would not abandon the militant groups that it has relied on to fight as proxies in Afghanistan and in Kashmir against India.

The goal in South Waziristan, Mr. Fatemi said, was to eliminate the leadership that had become “too big of their boots” with the attacks on Pakistan’s cities. The army would like to find more pliant replacements as leaders, he said.

The militants’ war against the cities in the past three weeks had produced a wave of fear that shored up support for the army to fight back in South Waziristan, many Pakistanis said.

But the terror has also amplified complaints that the unpopular civilian government of President Asif Ali Zardari, who is seen as slavishly pro-American, is unable to cope with the onslaught.

Mr. Zardari, whose relations with the Pakistani military appear increasingly strained, has not addressed the nation since the militants unfurled their attacks or since the army launched the offensive in South Waziristan.

Interior Minister Rehman Malik was pelted with stones last week when he visited the International Islamic University after two suicide bomb attacks on the campus killed six students, including women.

After the attack at the university, the government ordered all schools and universities closed in Punjab, the most populous province, a move that affected Pakistani families like never before.

“The impact is being felt in every home, before it was just the North-West Frontier Province,” said Jahangir Tareen, a member of Parliament and a member of the cabinet under President Pervez Musharraf.

When schools were ordered re-opened Monday, parents were still unhappy.

“The mood is as bleak as I remember,” said a well-to-do parent in Lahore who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation. “The government says the private schools must open, but security is up to the schools. Where is the government?”

The range and different style of attacks in the urban areas, particularly in Islamabad, the capital, and the nearby garrison city of Rawalpindi, surprised Pakistani security officials, said a Western diplomat who is in frequent contact with them.

The Pakistani security services knew that sleeper cells had been put in place in both cities in the past six months, but their strength was unknown, the diplomat said. “These were not your scared suicide bomber boys from the villages, these were well trained commandos,” the diplomat said.

The assassination of an army brigadier as he drove through Islamabad last week further unnerved people, demonstrating that the militants had a cadre of spotters or observers probably marshaled from the increasing number of students attending radical religious schools in the capital, the diplomat said.

Whatever President Obama decides about troop levels in Afghanistan, Pakistan sees the United States and NATO headed for the exits, an outcome that encourages Pakistan to hang onto the militants that it has used as proxies, the Western diplomat said.

The fact that the United States had so far failed to persuade India to restart talks with Pakistan and that it was doing little to curb what Pakistan sees as the undue influence of India in Afghanistan was unsettling for Pakistan, Mr. Fatemi, the former ambassador, said.

On top of everything else, that feeling was driving a surge of anti-American sentiment, even among the elite, some Pakistanis said, increasing the challenges ahead.

“There is a general perception in the educated class that Pakistan is paying a very heavy price for fighting alongside the United States,” said Ashfaq Khan, a prominent economist and dean of the business school at the National University of Science and Technology in Islamabad.

Health task force for Waziristan IDPs

PESHAWAR: The provincial health department is forming a task force to supervise and give advice regarding gaps in provision of health facilities to South Waziristan displaced people residing in Dera Ismail Khan and Tank districts.

‘The government has registered 19,548 families with 149,934 individuals from South Waziristan. All of them are residing with host communities because camps couldn’t be established in view of ethnic problems and general law and order situation,’ said officials.

Therefore, they added, health facilities in union councils where the displaced people were living with host communities were being strengthened.

The decision to form the six-member task force, comprising a gynaecologist, a public health expert and a surgeon and one member each from the WHO, Unicef and UNFPA, was taken at a meeting held recently at the WHO office in Islamabad.

The meeting, co-chaired by WHO’s country representative Dr Khalife Mahmud Bile and NWFP health director-general Dr Fazal Mahmood and attended by executive district officers (health) of Tank, D. I. Khan, Lakki Marwat and Bannu, discussed the health scenario of the displaced people. It decided that the task force would be visiting these districts and would identify gaps in health facilities to the provincial health department and the WHO.

At the meeting, the WHO official handed over 26 emergency health kits to the EDO of D. I. Khan, which can cater to 146,000 persons for two months and 16 kits for 96,000 persons to the EDO of Tank, apart from handing over three inter-agency emergency health kits for 30,000 people. Three cholera kits were also provided to D. I. Khan.

The world health agency also pledged to provide a state-of-the-art mobile clinical laboratory to enable health professionals to provide diagnostic services to displaced families.

Dr Mahmood told Dawn on Tuesday that the decision to form the task force was necessitated by the fact that UN officials could not visit the troubled spots because of security problems.

The WHO, he said, was also starting three-day training of doctors and health professionals of D. I. Khan and Tank districts on disease early warning system (DEWS) from Nov 3. ‘We are implementing DEWS in Tank and D. I. Khan to know about the trend of diseases and take timely measures in case of epidemics,’ he said.

A WHO official said the two districts had a weak referral system due to which the displaced people could face problems in case of serious medical conditions. For this purpose, he said, four ambulances, two each for D. I. Khan and Tank, would soon be given to the executive district officers by the WHO so that the seriously-ill IDPs could be transported to nearest health facilities.

He said the people displaced from Waziristan were being diverted from Lakki Marwat and Bannu districts to D. I. Khan and Tank and health facilities in the latter two districts were being strengthened.

Dr Mahmood said the EDOs concerned had been directed to hold IDPs health cluster meetings on weekly basis and inform the provincial health office.

The WHO had also pledged essential drugs for the displaced people, he said.

Health task force for Waziristan IDPs

PESHAWAR: The provincial health department is forming a task force to supervise and give advice regarding gaps in provision of health facilities to South Waziristan displaced people residing in Dera Ismail Khan and Tank districts.

‘The government has registered 19,548 families with 149,934 individuals from South Waziristan. All of them are residing with host communities because camps couldn’t be established in view of ethnic problems and general law and order situation,’ said officials.

Therefore, they added, health facilities in union councils where the displaced people were living with host communities were being strengthened.

The decision to form the six-member task force, comprising a gynaecologist, a public health expert and a surgeon and one member each from the WHO, Unicef and UNFPA, was taken at a meeting held recently at the WHO office in Islamabad.

The meeting, co-chaired by WHO’s country representative Dr Khalife Mahmud Bile and NWFP health director-general Dr Fazal Mahmood and attended by executive district officers (health) of Tank, D. I. Khan, Lakki Marwat and Bannu, discussed the health scenario of the displaced people. It decided that the task force would be visiting these districts and would identify gaps in health facilities to the provincial health department and the WHO.

At the meeting, the WHO official handed over 26 emergency health kits to the EDO of D. I. Khan, which can cater to 146,000 persons for two months and 16 kits for 96,000 persons to the EDO of Tank, apart from handing over three inter-agency emergency health kits for 30,000 people. Three cholera kits were also provided to D. I. Khan.

The world health agency also pledged to provide a state-of-the-art mobile clinical laboratory to enable health professionals to provide diagnostic services to displaced families.

Dr Mahmood told Dawn on Tuesday that the decision to form the task force was necessitated by the fact that UN officials could not visit the troubled spots because of security problems.

The WHO, he said, was also starting three-day training of doctors and health professionals of D. I. Khan and Tank districts on disease early warning system (DEWS) from Nov 3. ‘We are implementing DEWS in Tank and D. I. Khan to know about the trend of diseases and take timely measures in case of epidemics,’ he said.

A WHO official said the two districts had a weak referral system due to which the displaced people could face problems in case of serious medical conditions. For this purpose, he said, four ambulances, two each for D. I. Khan and Tank, would soon be given to the executive district officers by the WHO so that the seriously-ill IDPs could be transported to nearest health facilities.

He said the people displaced from Waziristan were being diverted from Lakki Marwat and Bannu districts to D. I. Khan and Tank and health facilities in the latter two districts were being strengthened.

Dr Mahmood said the EDOs concerned had been directed to hold IDPs health cluster meetings on weekly basis and inform the provincial health office.

The WHO had also pledged essential drugs for the displaced people, he said.

US turning a new page in ties, says Hillary

Dawn.com
WASHINGTON: A lot of military equipment is ‘fungible’ and mobile and can be used in different places, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told Dawn when asked if it’s fair to demand that a Pakistani military unit using a certain weapon on the Afghan border leave that weapon behind when it’s transferred to another place.

In a wide-ranging interview, Secretary Clinton said that since the beginning of the Waziristan operation, the US had been trying to accelerate its assistance for the Pakistani military.

‘We both have bureaucracies. We know how it is sometimes that things get delayed or they’re slower than we want, but we’re really trying to accelerate everything we can to help the Pakistani military.’

She agreed with the suggestion that the operation in South Waziristan was crucial for Pakistan’s stability and survival.

‘We believe that what the Pakistani military has done is in the best interest of Pakistan. It also is a conflict that we believe Pakistan has to win for Pakistan’s future.’

Asked if failure in Waziristan could also jeopardise Pakistan, the secretary said: ‘Well, it is a risk, but I have a lot of confidence in the Pakistani military. I think that this is a very well thought out and well executed military campaign. We saw the success in Swat, and I think we’re seeing the results of this effort in Waziristan.’

Asked if the US was sharing intelligence it gathered through its unmanned aircraft with the Pakistani military to help it trace the militants hiding in Waziristan, she said: ‘I don’t discuss intelligence, but we are doing all that we can to be helpful to the Pakistani military.’

In the interview, Secretary also addressed some of the issues that irritate people both in the United States and Pakistan but focussed mainly on what she believes was the real substance: a desire to build a long-term partnership between the two nations.

Asked if the uproar over the Kerry-Lugar bill had done a major damage to US relations with the Pakistani military, she said: ‘I hope not. And I will be discussing that directly, as have other representatives of our government, both our administration and Congress, because that was certainly not the intention.’

She pointed out that the US was providing a great deal of support to the Pakistani military in their ‘courageous fight’ against the violent extremists.

‘So we certainly want to have a positive relationship and there’s been a lot of outreach between the leaders of our military and the leaders of the Pakistani military and there seems to be a good base for cooperation between our militaries,’ she said.

‘So we do very much value the partnership and support that we are giving to the Pakistan military, and I hope that that will be the real story that comes out.’

The secretary, who arrives in Islamabad soon with a message of hope and friendship from President Barack Obama, acknowledged that some of the distrust between the two countries was rooted in the recent past.

‘I hope on this trip I will be able to start that ball rolling, so to speak, so that maybe some in your country will say, no, I really didn’t have a good opinion before,’ she said.

‘I thought it was all about are you going to be with us or against us on the war on terrorism, but this is a new day. That’s why we’re turning a new page. And I hope part of what I can convey on my trip is exactly that message.’

She had a personal message too. ‘I love the food, I wear shalwar-kamees. Give me a seekh kabob and daal I’ll be a happy person.’

The secretary also likes the Pakistani music. ‘Some of the music that’s coming out of Pakistan now, some of the cultural facts that I like, some of the dancing that is traditional which I have seen in my prior visits,’ she said.

‘I enjoy, looking at some of the work that I’ve done in the past. I remember when Chelsea and I were there. My daughter had been studying Islamic history in her school here in Washington.’

Indian border
Asked to comment on the US demand that a Pakistani army unit deployed along the Afghan border should leave behind all US-supplied weapons when it is transferred to the Indian border, Secretary Clinton said: ‘Well, that’s really a question that is hard to answer because a lot of military equipment is fungible. I mean, it’s mobile. It can be used in different places. But what we see as the direct threat to Pakistan right now comes from the violent extremism.’

She tackled the Indian factor in this equation rather tactfully. ‘Obviously, we are hopeful that there will be a resumption of dialogue between Pakistan and India, because I think the threat that Pakistan faces is a threat that could destabilise the entire region,’ she said.

‘And what we want to do is to help Pakistan really finally eliminate that threat. And what we hope is that on the ongoing challenges between India and Pakistan that that can be handled politically and it would never come to any kind of military action.’

Secretary Clinton had to rush to the White House to attend a Situation Room meeting on Afghanistan and Pakistan right when she was going to settle before the camera for the interview and resumed the interview when she returned.

She said President Obama was sending a strong message of support for Pakistan with her.

The message was: ‘Let’s get back to a really strong basis where we can work with one another, we will listen more closely to one another and consult and have this strategic partnership really build more into the future and create benefits for both of our people.’

Kerry-Lugar dispute
Speaking about the Kerry-Lugar bill, Secretary Clinton said the US had made it ‘very clear’ that in Kerry-Lugar it’s not putting conditions on the Pakistani government; it’s putting conditions on its own institutions for evaluating the aid, like it does with the vast majority of its aid programmes.

‘But the Pakistanis have their own ability to make decisions that they believe are obviously in the Pakistani interest. We respect territorial and sovereign capacity of Pakistan. Their sovereignty has to be respected. So we want to be a partner, not to in any way dictate but to assist. And that’s what we’re attempting to do.’

Similarly, she said, there were no conditions on Pakistan in the recently passed amendment to the US defence expenditure bill.

‘I think if one looks carefully at those provisions, they’re mostly about what our Defence Department is expected to do. They’re not really any kind of condition or restriction on the Pakistani military.

‘But I do think it’s fair to point out that when the United States taxpayers provide money to any military, which we do in many places around the world, it is supposed to be for certain missions. I mean, there are many areas where a nation’s military would be proceeding on its own because something was very much in their own self-interest which we do not partner on, but where we partner there is a back and forth about what we can do to be helpful.’

Security on high alert in Peshawar

PESHAWAR: Security is on high alert in Peshawar as the local government has erected additional pickets on all the entrances and exits of the city, in milieu of country’s deteriorating peace situation.Cars are being checked with the help of detective dogs.
Additional security personnel have been deployed at Peshawar’s GT Road, Kohat Road, Chaarsadda, Rang Road, Khyber Road, Saddar and Hayatabad areas.The extra police personnel have been posted at the pickets to entirely search the vehicles before allowing them to enter Peshawar.Strict checking is being carried out on all the roads leading to Cantonment limits and cars are searched with bomb-sniffing dogs to ensure safety.The Police have called upon the citizens to fully cooperate with law enforcement agencies.

Obama: "I may be skinny but I'm tough"

President Barack Obama had a message for his political friends and foes on Monday -- "just because I'm skinny doesn't mean I'm not tough."

Obama was in Miami raising $1.5 million for Democratic congressional candidates for the 2010 elections, in which Democrats are seeking to hold onto their strong majorities in the House of Representatives and the Senate.

After weeks in which he has been angrily criticized by some on the right, to the point of creating a poster image of him with a Hitler mustache, Obama told a fund-raising event that some of his supporters have been expressing concern to him.

"I've tried to explain ... just because I'm skinny doesn't mean I'm not tough. I don't rattle. I'm not going to shrink back, because now is the time for us to continue to push and follow through on those things that we know have to be done but have not been done in decades," he said.

And he had tough words for those Republican critics who he says are not helping solve some of the problems that festered when they were in control of the White House and Congress.

"Lately I feel like somebody made a big mess and I've got my mop and I'm mopping the floor and the folks who made the mess are there (saying) 'you're not mopping fast enough. You're not mopping the right way. It's a socialist mop.'"

The president also used speeches at two Miami political events to contest the notion circulated by some political commentators and Republican critics that he has little show in the way of accomplishments during his nine months in office.

He reeled off a string of legislative achievements, starting with the $787 billion economic stimulus he credited with helping stop the bleeding in the U.S. economy. Republicans, on the other hand, contend the spending has done little to restrain the 9.8 percent U.S. jobless rate.

Among other items Obama listed: Lifting the Bush ban on using federal funds for stem cell research, signing legislation to ensure women gain equal pay as men for the same work, banning housing fraud, toughening credit card regulations and bringing the country close to a massive healthcare overhaul.

Abroad, Obama said he had put the United States on a path to getting U.S. troops out of Iraq and is working on a new strategy for Afghanistan.

"Here's my main message to you. We're just getting started," he said.