US needs Pak-Afghan help to identify moderate Taliban

WASHINGTON: Pakistan and Afghanistan can help the United States in approaching those Taliban activists who may have moderate views and are willing to lay down their arms, says US National Security Adviser Gen. James Jones.

In a rare, exclusive interview to Dawn, Gen. Jones also stressed the need for a greater cooperation between Pakistan and Afghanistan in the fight against terrorists and said that President Barack Obama’s new strategy offers new hopes for peace and security in the South Asian region.

‘Surely the Pakistani people and Afghan people know more than we do,’ said Gen. Jones when asked how the US would approach the moderates among the Taliban that President Obama says could be included in the peace process.

‘And they can certainly help us in identifying those who are moderate in their views and wish to be participating in the political process,’ said the US national security adviser when asked whether Washington would directly approach the moderate Taliban or would include Pakistan and Afghanistan in this effort.

Explaining who he believed were the moderates, Gen. Jones said those who were willing to participate in the political process ‘without violence and without terror and without causing breaches in the security of either country.

‘And so I think that as we work towards identifying those people who wish to enter into a peaceful dialogue, political dialogue, there’s certainly room on the table for them.’

Asked what’s new in President Obama’s new strategy for the people of Pakistan, especially when drone attacks have continued unabated, Gen. Jones said: ‘What’s new is a regional focus. There has been a tendency in the past to deal with Pakistan and Afghanistan as separate issues. By appointing Ambassador Richard Holbrooke as a regional representative, the US is signaling a more comprehensive strategy.’

The US official pointed out that trouble in the border areas were of concern to both countries and should be dealt with accordingly.

In the new strategy, he said, President Obama also has indicated that the US would like to be helpful to its Pakistani friends and wanted to do whatever it could to be supportive of the government’s efforts.

The new strategy, he said, focuses on the real threat, al-Qaeda. ‘Al-Qaeda, whether it is in the border regions, in Pakistan or in Afghanistan, is the real enemy here. It is an enemy to the Pakistani people, it is an enemy to the Afghan people and to people here in the US and people all over the world.’

Gen. Jones said that when President Obama announced a direct aid package of $1.5 billion a year for five years, this was meant to reassure the Pakistani people that the US was committed to bringing peace and security to their country.

Read More…

Obama Afgh-Pak Policy Already Unraveling

Delhi, India. United States President Barack Hussein Obama unveiled his much awaited South Asian strategy in a globally televised speech last night (Indian time). Today many Indians told me, as one put it, that Obama “lived up to his middle name by showing the face of a pro-Pakistan US policy,” a critical component of which that policy is to find “moderate Taliban” with whom the United States and its allies can negotiate a peace. Imagine if in 1942, Franklin Roosevelt said the US was going to look for moderate Nazis who could negotiate peace. Americans would have been outraged then, and history would show the policy to have been a calamitous mistake. Fortunately, we do not have to wait for the passage of history since those moderate Taliban have already provided evidence that the policy is terribly flawed. Read more

Clinton Puts US Head in Pakistani Sand

Rudrapur, India. If Americans (or anyone else) needed proof that our government is hopelessly lost in South Asia, this morning’s Indian papers provide all the confirmation they need. The article in question featured a beaming Secretary of State Hillary Clinton praising the Pakistanis for “themselves resolving [their] difficulties.” Now, to be sure, Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari and his political rival Nawaz Sharif did resolve their internecine spat, but only because the military “convinced” Zardari that it would be in his best interests to give into to Sharif and re-appoint sacked judges loyal to the latter. Some accomplishment.

But Clinton’s belief that this deal can “stabilize civilian democracy and the rule of law” in Pakistan would be laughable were it not so tragic. Before their falling out, Zardari and Sharif appeared to be allies in the wake of last year’s Pakistani elections that ended the one-man rule of former president and military strongman Pervez Musharraf. The coalition of the hopeful hailed that election as a new democratic era in Pakistan. This recent events showed us first that the military is still in charge in Pakistan and second, that the Obama administration along with the European Union are willing to sacrifice the freedom and very lives of others so they can claim victory for their misguided South Asian policies. Read more