US faces hard choices in Pakistan

Washington, November 7: As the US began a review of aid to Pakistan after imposition of emergency rule, its choices seemed limited by its need to keep President Pervez Musharraf on its side in the fight against terror.

Officials at the White House and the State Department indicated as much Tuesday as they were hard put to defend the Bush administration's double standards in reacting to the situation in Myanmar and Pakistan where 'an ally in the war on terror has made a mistake'.

"We have to be mindful to make sure that we do not undermine any of our counter-terrorism efforts. The president has to protect the American people," said White House spokesperson Dana Perino.

"Pakistan is a country where extremists are trying to take hold and have a safe haven, and we had to deny them that. And we have been working with the Pakistani government, through President Musharraf, for the past several years on that," she said.

"I don't think that anybody expects that the president or the government is going to take a step that might make the United States less safe or might diminish our capabilities to fight terror," said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack.

But he insisted officials would be 'absolutely faithful' in upholding US laws conditioning military aid to Pakistan, which has reached nearly $10 billion since the Sep 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

McCormack said the administration was committed to a thorough review of US aid to Pakistan and officials at State and Defence departments and other government agencies were doing an inventory of aid programmes and legal requirements.

NYT blames Bush for crisis in Pakistan

New York, November 6: The New York Times has blamed President George Bush for the crisis in Pakistan and suggested he consider discussions with India, Iran, China and Saudi Arabia on how to prevent further instability there.

"The United States is increasingly left with bad options," the influential US daily said in an editorial Tuesday noting, 'cutting off aid would only make it harder to enlist Pakistan's military in the anti-extremist fight and renew doubts about America's reliability as an ally'.

"The United States should at least condition that money on Pakistan's performance in the anti-terrorism fight, on some form of accountability and on shifting more of it toward building political parties, courts and schools," it said.

"It should also consider discussions with India, Iran, China and Saudi Arabia on how to prevent further instability in Pakistan," the Times suggested.



While critical of Bush, the daily seemed to favour the Washington-brokered deal between Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf and former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto as a good bet as 'ultimately, democracy, not dictatorship, is the best hope for a stable Pakistan'.

Reviving Musharraf's backroom deal with Bhutto, 'however distasteful, may be a way back from the abyss if it includes a real commitment to elections by the general, if Ms. Bhutto insists that the elections be open to all parties and if Mr. Bush gives her strong backing', it said.

By imposing martial law, Musharraf has pushed nuclear-armed Pakistan further along a perilous course and underscored the failure of President Bush's policy toward a key ally in the war on terrorism, the daily said.

But 'the events should not have come as a surprise to administration officials. This is what you get when policy is centred slavishly on a single, autocratic ruler rather than more broadly on his country'.

Noting that returning Pakistan to civilian government has been a declared goal of the US since General Musharraf seized power in 1999 in a bloodless military coup, the daily noted that he has repeatedly broken promises to move in that direction.

"Most of the time, Mr. Bush, who says he cannot win the anti-terrorism war without General Musharraf but clearly can't win it with him either, acquiesced in his misdeeds," the Times alleged.

"The Faustian nature of the bargain is more apparent than ever. Not only has the general proven less committed to the anti-terrorism fight than expected (Al Qaeda and the Taliban are resurgent on the border with Afghanistan), but now he has abandoned any pretence of moving toward democracy," it said.

Bush seems to have gained little leverage from the more than $10 billion in American aid that has fattened Pakistan's coffers since September 11, 2001, much of it unaccounted for, the daily said.

US values ties with India more than Pakistan

Press Trust of India
Last Updated: October 31


Washington, October 31: United States has said that broad-based partnerships between America and India are critical and more important than those with Pakistan, as New Delhi is growing as a potential power with a global influence.

"The US-India strategic potential is very, very profound," Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defence for South and South East Asia James Clad told online journalists and bloggers during a conference call from the Pentagon.

While India's sometimes contentious neighbour, Pakistan, continued to search for Osama bin Laden and help wage the global war on terrorism, Clad explained, the US-Indian relationship was more important in the long run.

"India simply must, as a long term consideration, matter more for us than Pakistan," Clad has been quoted as saying in the American Forces Press Services.

"India is seen as a potentially a power with global reach," Clad said.

"It's been slow in coming - I think it will be slow in coming in the future - but it is steady. The trend lines are unmistakable," he said.

Clad said India was on a major course to ramp up its military infrastructure with a multi-billion budget at the ready to purchase, among other equipment, 126 multi-role combat aircraft.

"It is the largest external-announced defence procurement budget in the world. And people are obviously interested in this," he said, adding that 52 US defence corporations, including Boeing, Lockheed-Martin, Ratheon, Honeywell and General Electric, had all set up offices in India.

Referring to the recent visit by the USS Nimitz to Chennai, Clad said the visit had been an enormous success and had been greeted with great interest by the local people.

The US Navy also recently refurbished its former USS Trenton and presented it as a gift to the Indian Navy, he said.

"This is a substantial vessel which has been very well received in Indian naval circles," he said.

"You hit a golf ball on the Bangalore golf course, and that ball, unless you're careful, is going to go right through a window of IBM, which is right next to Infosys, which is an Indian firm staffed by Indian-Americans who are also listed on the New York Stock Exchange. So it's a much bigger relationship," he said.

"The relationship with India is now more comprehensive in trade, information technology, movement of its peoples," he said, adding that there were two million Indian-Americans now living in the United States.

The US, Clad said, should embrace the opportunity to assist and advise the country.

"It's about maintaining a type of equilibrium, about accepting India's rise into a type of maturity and power and prowess. We're coming into something that's naturally there. It's like a seat which is already at the table, and we're sliding into it," he added.