Senator Barack Obama has accused Pakistan of misusing U.S. military aid meant to help it fight al Qaeda and the Taliban to prepare for war against India. In an interview with Fox News he also says the United States must put more pressure on Pakistan to crack down on Islamist militants, hold it accountable for increased military support, and be prepared to act aggressively against al Qaeda; “if we have bin Laden in our sights, we target him and we knock him out,” he says. However he adds that “nobody talked about some full-blown invasion of Pakistan.”
The latter part of his comments is not that new, nor indeed that different from the policies of the current U.S. administration. But it is his comment about India that has been seized upon by the media in South Asia. ”We are providing them military aid without having enough strings attached. So they’re using the military aid that we use, to Pakistan, they’re preparing for war against India,” he says.
You can see the stories in The Times of India and Dawn here and here.
It will be interesting to see if Obama expands on those comments next week, either in the Fox News interview (so far only the early part has been released) or elsewhere. The main question is how the United States would try to convince the Pakistan Army to turn its full force against al Qaeda and the Taliban on Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan, while easing up on its traditional preoccupation of defending its border with India. Holding Pakistan accountable for U.S. military aid is one thing; changing the psychology of the Pakistan Army is quite another.
As I mentioned in an earlier post, Obama has said the U.S. war in Afghanistan would be made easier if the United States worked to improve trust between India and Pakistan. “A lot of what drives, it appears, motivations on the Pakistan side of the border, still has to do with their concerns and suspicions about India,” he told a news conference in Amman back in July.
So pressure on Pakistan to crack down harder on al Qaeda and the Taliban is likely to be accompanied by U.S. pressure on India to make peace with its much smaller neighbour. But India deeply resents any outside interference in its dispute with Pakistan over Kashmir, which it sees as a bilateral issue.
The United States desperately needs Pakistan’s help to avoid a humiliating failure in Afghanistan. But it is also anxiously courting India (as highlighted by the U.S.-India nuclear deal) as it realigns its alliances in Asia to deal with an increasingly powerful China.
So what gives?
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realmerv, regarding Ind/Pak war, as an Indian, I have to say that India recognizes Pak’s independence. Therefore, even if we win a war with Pak, most likely, we might leave them alone to decide what they want to do with their govt. This is because India,being democratic, recognizes the right of Pak ppl to elect their own leader. Additionally, the fight is only about Kashmir. We fight for kashmir because we believe that the people there wanted to be part of India. Pak snuck terrorists and raiders across the border to create the partition of Kashmir. And they gave part of that to China to put them in the loop.
- Posted by AJMMaurice, my main point is actually that the the muslims believe that they have to convert us all to Islam or to kill and enslave us as infidels. I doubt that you can change their way of thinking within 100 years. Where do you think the radical muslims are coming from? It is mainly from Pakistan while some come from Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Indonesia.
The muslims can’t be converted to christianity or other more peaceful religions since it is against their laws to try to convert a muslim to another religion in countries such as Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Do you think it is possible to educate the uneducated masses in Pakistan in 100 years so that they will be better educated and thus be able to realize that killing infidels is not the right thing to do? Yes, the answer is no … not within 100 years. You can’t convert them to another religion so their thinking will continue for generations.
That’s why it is best to leave them in their misery and not help them at all. Let them continue living in the dark ages with their culture of fighting and killing. Muslims don’t care if they die since they all want to become martyrs. Trying to improve their standard of living will only allow more of them to have the resources to travel by air to the Western countries and attack us more easily.
If you don’t see this picture of Muslims wanting to kill or enslave infidels, you are just naive and unless you start reading more on Islam and its danger, you will not be able to see the danger the muslims present.
And the point about Pakistan warring with India … I don’t think India will attack Pakistan first, it will be Pakistan attacking India and instigating the war between the two countries. They have fought each other before and what is to keep them from fighting again? People in our world are always fighting each other; look at history and you can see it is true. World War II was only about 68 years ago. And countries have been fighting each other almost continuously from then till now.
- Posted by realmervRealmerv
You’re nuts. Hoping for Pakistan to get into war with India is plain nuts.
Now I’m not going to say how this issue should be resolved but seeing the destruction of one nation just to “reduce terrorism” is a crazy and appalling thought. I’ll just say that the places where most terrorists come from are in very bad shape; lack of clean water, poor infrastructure and weak economy. When a country is such a bad state, people are going to blame somebody for it, that’s where hatred for America comes from because Amercians exploit and waste resources from other countries.
That’s why many international organizations are giving aid to the developing countries to improve their standard of living so people can concentrate on getting a decent living instead drawing up plans for a war, which would bring about more misery for the people, which is what you seem to be suggesting.
- Posted by MauriceI agree with Wagar Khan but I think he is wrong about Barack Obama in that Obama is just ignorant … not nuts. Obama wants us to direct our troups in Afghanistan instead of in Iraq where the war is winding down for the Americans. He and the rest of the liberal Democrats talk of John McCain wanting to fight in Iraq for the next 100 years which is clearly a lie since McCain was just saying that our troops could be in Iraq for as long as 100 years in much the same way that American troops are still stationed in Germany and in Japan since the end of World War II as peacekeepers in the region. And what fighting will American troops be involved in Iraq with when the Iraqis are taking over their provinces and the American troop levels are being reduced as the Iraqis take over?
If the American public goes along with Obama’s thinking that we should put more troops in Afghanistan since that is where we need to fight the terrorist, we are doomed to lose and we definitely could end up fighting a losing battle there for 40 to 60 or more years and we will end up leaving in defeat. We can’t attack Pakistan since they have nuclear weapons so our troops can only stay in Afghanistan and fight the Taliban as they come over the border and attack us. We would be fighting a defensive battle and the Taliban will dictate the fighting. We will lose more American lives than we lost in Vietnam until the American public gets sick and tired of the cost to America in terms of dollars and American lives. There are millions of poor Pakistanis that the Taliban can recruit as fighters through their madrassas so even if the Americans can kill them in battles at a ratio of 50 Taliban to 1 American, the lost in American lives will be enormous.
The Soviet Union fought in Afghanistan ruthlessly and couldn’t win there and had to pull out of the country with their tails between their legs. Our troops have to fight with one hand behind their backs since they have rules of engagement to follow and are always concerned about killing innocent civilians. This is why it is a lost cause since you can’t win a battle like that where the enemy troops are endless.
The best path for America is to reduce the military and financial aid to Pakistan and hope Pakistan gets into a war with India. The Indians will wipe the Pakistanis out and there will be less Taliban recruits available to attack the Americans in Afghanistan. We still need to give aid to Pakistan as we give aid to Egypt and the Palestinians as goodwill gestures and in order to keep the Pakistan military with siding entirely with the Taliban against us.
Anyway, Barack Obama doesn’t have the experience and military intellect even though he probably has hundreds of liberal advisers giving advise to him on foreign policy. If you fight wars, you need military men to advise you not socialist military generals who are just whimps and don’t know how to fight and win wars. Why do you think America has the most powerful military in the world? We have generals who are warriors and know how to fight wars.
Didn’t people see how easily Germany attacked the European countries during World War II and easily beat the neighboring countries? That is why the European countries are wary about sending combat troops to Afghanistan; they are there only to rebuild the country and not to fight. England is the only European country that knows how to fight as they did during World War II.
- Posted by realmervThe rest of the European countries are whimps when it comes down to fighting a war. And Barack Obama has the intellect of Europeans so he is not fit to be Commander-in-chief.
First of all, I was in Pakistan for the first time since 1997. I had voted for Obama in primary, but I think this guy is nuts. I don’t want to risk US/Pakistan War, never the less it would be a world war III. If Pakistan is using such aids to get into war with India, then why do we need to get their help? why do we need to pay them? Why not secure, the boader area from afghanistan, and let the Taliban stay and do whatever they want in Pakistan. See Taliban don’t have plans or anyway to move out of the country but the boaders. They don’t have enought army, or the arm power to fight with us. Why can’t we do this? but See I think it just simply the US is in war against all Muslim countries. First is Afghanistan, Iraq, now either Pakistan or Iran. America’s plan is to internally weakin Pakistan, since America know that Pakistan is a nuclear power. If I were Obama, I wouldn’t have touched Pakistan. I would stopped all the aids to Pakistan, and use that money to protect the boaders from Afghanistan side. Just a quick question to all of you, what has Taliban done that we so much think they are terroist? none of them had anything to do with 911. See its all the creation of Bush, Taliban can’t do anything to any country, since they don’t have that fire arm as we do. We created them, to just blind-fold the world that they are distorying Soviet tanks. I think they are innocent people, people who just want to live. If they have believes that people shouldn’t drink, and women shouldn’t wear cloths that show off their bodies, why should we care? I mean for example, to us that practice is bad, and to them our practices are bad. As an educated nation, I would say that we out to understand to accept other people differences, and accept their culture. I think the biggest terroist is US, we killed so many innocent people, in the name of justice, are we justice? or the innocent people that are not American, their life is nothing? their life doesn’t matter. We could kill them in their sleep, prayer, wedding parties, or while they are just minding their own business. Who is responsible for that?
- Posted by Waqar KhanI think we all know the monstor, Islamic Terror!! is getting bigger and wider. We can not afraid of tomorrow for th sake of Nuclear Pakistan. We have to avoid energy which is funding terror. We are living in unsecure world, to make it secure we have to destroy idology of terror or be ready to get destoyed free society.
- Posted by DarrenObama is 100% correct.
Over many years now, America has pumped in several Billions (I believe Trillion now) of the Taxpayer Dollars into Pakistan without any tracking!!
Can someone tell what well established Industries exists in Pakistan? (there is none!)
One can take a look at the Defence Ependiture of Pakistan. It is completely unbalanced with the rest of the economy!! Pakistan has always been after Kashmir and is always planning to stage WAR against India to control Kashmir. However even CIA has confessed that Pakistan cannot win any WAR against India including a Nuclear option.
The infamous Pakistani organization ISI is controlling most of Pakistani operations which Mr Bush is also now questioning (who is controlling ISI etc.). Every one suspect that a lot of funds are also being directed to this agency which seems to be supporting Terrorists.
There is a area between Pakistan and Afghanistan, a tribal belt of 100-200 kms wide but all along border (including Kashmir area). Every Pakistani will also tell you that there is NO law and order in this area (there is only tribal law). So without law, obviously, this area is heaven for the Terrorists.
Elect Obama and save our money being sent to countries who are always doubted as “Friend or Foe?”
He is the one who has spoken the Truth => “The terrorists in Iraq were not there before American invasion and that America needs to focus on Afghanistan and Pakistan (Where the source of Iraq’s Terrorist problem is also coming from)!”
- Posted by BringOutTheTruthHi ! It is amazing to read the comments on here….when are you going to realise that this has nothing to do with the Taleban, Pakistan’s government or anything similar to this…the more “incidents” that occur in Pakistan / Afghanistan, the less the population in the US will actually focus on the political leadership in the US !!!!!! when is the public going to get this?
The establishment wants to divert attention as much as possible……why did the US send naval units to deliver humanitarian aid? normally this aid is delivered by NGOs…why did the US have to sign an agreement with Poland regarding the (useless) shield to coincide with the confrontation in Georgia….why does the Georgian president think that he can fly the EU flag…Georgia is not in the EU….in the opinion of a lot of Europeans…Georgia is not actually part of Europe….why should Western soldiers die for a country which starts a fight with a much larger neighbour…the Georgians were the ones who started the conflict with Russia…it was not the other way round…when are people going to realise this..perhaps when the media stops writing the news to suit their political masters……
- Posted by Very Intelligent one...Obama is very very naive. It is not the first time that pakistan misused funds and it wont be the last. The only solution is to provide moe funds. Afterall Pakistan has lost more soldiers and civilians of their own than the US and the least we could do is to pay them. We have given Pakistan 10-12 billion in 8 years, while our own budget in iraq exceeds 300 billion. I am sure they could do better with a little more. And like america, pakistan has its own enemies to take care of, if we could go and wage a war 1000s of miles away why cant they be concerned about their neighbours?
- Posted by bigshowI think Obama has things in perspective. When I say ‘things’, I mean all aspects to the US government.. including the war on terror. He has followed up on everything that has occurred, and sees that Pakistan hasn’t been helping as they should’ve, w/the aid given to them.
- Posted by SGAt the same time, we got some other folks gauging in on Iran, but we know where that motive lies, and it’s not supporting the war on terror. It’s a more fuel hungry cause.. if you know what I mean.
Sen. Obama knows what he is doing, and I believe that he will know what he is doing, once he’s in office. Maybe the world can be a better place.. as well as the US.
[...] he says. However he adds that “nobody talked about some full-blown invasion of Pakistan.” >>>>> The information in this interview, and now Obama’s inching against Islam position, cannot be [...]
- Posted by Obama says Pakistan used U.S. aid to prepare for war against India « 5-Pillar ColumnAmerican Presidents have been extraordinarily naive about terrorist activities based out of and funded by Pakistan for decades. Even though the US has been wisening up somewhat in the years since 911, the lack to date of bin-laden’s scalp, and the abysmal results in Afghanistan, still lie rooted in this naivety. Obama’s remarks are refreshingly astute and an encouraging start to get real in order to bring actual oversight of THE WORLD’S GREATEST NUCLEAR THREAT IN THE 21ST CENTURY. Pakistan is a snake with many heads, viz. its new corrupt President, its notorious intelligence operator the ISI, its restless army, the state-created Taliban and any number of armed jihadis. It is a politically failed state, WITH NO FRIENDS, with a fast-failing economy. It created the Taliban monster, which in turn crowned the Al Qaeda. It has a culture of violence. Time has already proved that it was naive to take them on board as a partner in the so-called War on Terror. If you have friends like them why would you need enemies. YES OBAMA’S ON THE RIGHT SCENT AND PATH….FOR SURE!!
- Posted by Vji don’t know what point your trying to make David Duke but
- Posted by Devwe give cash to Israel for a reason. Unlike the case with Pakistan, which by spending our money on their TERROR attacks on Indian proves that they are not a ally we can trust.
Hey Myra,
Why is it that every Western columnist, particularly in the UK and the US, acknowledge that Pakistan misused US funds to arm Pakistan’s army against India, but conclude that India must be the problem, and that pressure should be applied to India? Pakistan lied to the US and misused its funds. It’s a military dictatorship with absolutely no minorities to speak of. The ISI sponsors terrorism in Afghanistan, and India’s the problem? Good one, Captain Thought Process. How about you tell your politicians to apply pressure to this terrorist basket-case state known as Pakistan and tell them to obey international law instead? By the way, your understanding of South Asian politics is directly proportional to your fluency in Urdu and Hindi. Good luck reading “South Asian newspapers,” you seem to cherry-pick the low circulation English speaking ones.
- Posted by JohnIt seems that Senator Obama sees everthing black and white. I don’t blame him for that. Our American friends give 10-12 Billions every year to state of Israel for what, to kill innocent Palistinian people and treat them like second class citizen of the world. He does not see this. He goes blind on this issue. He goes further and pays official visit to Isreal to show solidarity with state so he can earn Jewish votes at home. What a guy.
My advice to Obama, yes you are good talker but learn your lesson from the history of South Africa. Get some advice from Neslon Mendela too.
- Posted by David DukeI think Mr Obama is correct in saying what he is saying. First of all, we need to look at what we are giving the Pakistanis in terms of weapons, F-16 block D, anti-ship missiles, used/new helicopter gunships, P-3 Orion maritime patrol & anti-submarine aircraft, E-2C Hawkeye 2000 AEW aircraft to name a few. Out of these the only weapon to be used against the Taliban is te helicopter gunships. The rest are meant to fight a war with India - unless we plan on providing the Taliban with aircraft, naval ships, submarines etc etc. I don’t think the current administration is giving military aid to fight the Taliban but is buying the Pakistani army with advanced weapons to put up a samblance of a fight against the Taliban/al Quaida. Pakistani army on the other hand is fighting for control and survival. If there is peace with India, the Paki army does not have the reason to get an unlimited budget for itself and it’s terror training arm called the ISI.
- Posted by PorAmericaIn my opinion, it is very important for us to change the mindset of the Paki army and it’s anti-India activities before there can be any peace in the South Asian region. A US administration that understands that can easily win the war on terror. Remember that part of the funding for the 911 terrorists was funneled from Pakistan and their chief of ISI knew about it - that is why Collin Powell called Musharraf and hed the guy fired within 2 weeks of the 911 attack.
We all have to be very practical in our approach to solving this global menace and not try to humor or cajol a country’s fake ideology.
I think Obama is a well visioned and a very pragmatic president after all
- Posted by ShipinThats a very stupid thing to say on the part of Barack Obama. So what if Pakistan uses part of the military aid that comes from the United States to defend its border with India? Obama doesn’t see the whole picture.
If you give Pakistan $1 billion dollars in military aid, Pakistan can spend the entire amount on the Afghanistan/Pakistan border region or it can spend $500 million dollars of U.S. military aid money on the Afghanistan/Pakistan border region and $500 million dollars on the Pakistan/India border region plus they can also spend $500 million dollars of Pakistan’s military budget on the Afghanistan/Pakistan border region and $500 million dollars of Pakistan’s military budget on the Pakistan/India border region. This would amount to the same thing; it would be a wash. It’s like co-mingling funds in your military budget.
Put in another way, if Pakistan were to use the entire $1 billion dollars of military aid from the U.S along the Afghanistan/Pakistan border region, they could decide to put none of their own military funds into the same border region and instead apply the funds entirely at the Pakistan/India border region.
The $1 billion dollar figure is just for illustrative purposes.
If Obama tries to put too much pressure on Pakistan, what do you do if Pakistan tells the United States to keep their money and they’ll just let the Taliban have their own way in the region. Then we would have no help at all. Remember that Pakistan is a nuclear power and their mentality is even lower than our parent’s generation because of their literacy rate. And because of their religion, they don’t care if they die or not so what would the U.S. do if Pakistan gives nuclear bombs to the Taliban and the Taliban decided to use the nuclear bombs on our forces in Afghanistan?
So even Obama’s foreign policy advisers don’t have a clue about good foreign policy. And the liberals want to run our country?
Does Obama think that we give money to Egypt and the Palestinians for specific purposes and expect them to use the funds only as we want them to? We give money to Egypt, the Palestinians, and Israel so that we don’t look like we are just taking a one-sided position and it is basically for good will.
- Posted by realmervI am not a fan of America and Australias current war on the proud Pashtun people of Afghanstan/ Pakistan.
Sums of around 1.2billion dollars (US) per year were paid to that most undemocratic military dictator ‘President’ Musharif to use his Sepoys to win our illustrious supreme being supported War on Terror against their own countrymen and their cousins that communicate freely throughout their traditional lands.
These people, our ‘enemy,’ are the same anti-communists that beat the Soviet Union there (please refer to the Taliban/ Afghanistan victory that Mr Obama may not even be aware of). And they tell the world that their numbers and resolve are greater than that of the tired American fighting men (remember that their women soldiers had to be sent home to their families at the beginning of the Iraq failure) that Mr Obama would sacrifice if he attacks Pakistan.
Don’t worry about Australia though. We would only show our flag as part of the defence aggreements with the US, and the few Special Air Service soldiers we provide would pick their own battles and be satisfied with any price they would be obliged to pay (Australias government does not consider our regular Army to be up to the task of fighting Terror, despite the well documented frustration this policy is causing amongst our service-people).
In closing, I guess I am saying that I don’t like the idea of Mr Obama attacking the now democratic nuclear weapon armed state of Pakistan, and boy, would Mr Obama wax lyrically about the number of deceased ‘judeo - christian heroes’ that Mr Bin Laden will create. I do hope my views are not considered by readers as ‘un-American,’ here on the far side of the world!
- Posted by David in CanberraGod help us if McCain gets elected. McCain wants to fight one more big war to prove his untested skills as Commander-in-Chief. The USA is broke and owes trillions to China, Japan, Russia, Mexico and the Arabs. Bush squandered our cash and credit on a 7 year war in Iraq that is a civil war between the Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds, that we can never “win.” What does “win” in Iraque mean, that when we leave the 3 groups will not kill each other? They have fought for a thousand years, that’s why it was a primitive civilization until the USA propped up the monarchy, then Sadaam Hussein and our oil money allowed it to make progress.
- Posted by Joe Svoboda