[Peace-discuss] End the US war in Pakistan

[C. G. Estabrook]

[Remember that the reason that the administration is preparing to increase its 
military presence in Pakistan is to "fight terrorism" (as we once said "fight 
communism").  Obama says the reason is 9/11, but the world knows that the US is 
killing people to insure its domination of the region. The Pakistani ambassador 
gives the lie to Obama when he points out that Pakistan "has one of the largest 
armies in the world -- the military is capable of dealing with the insurgency." 
Even the propaganda is recycled. "Existential threat" is a favorite of the 
oh-so-threatened Israeli government.  (Maybe Clinton was listening to Rep. 
Harman's phone calls.)  --CGE]


	Obama to host talks amid US concern over Taliban

WASHINGTON (AFP) — Taliban advances in Pakistan pose "an existential threat" to 
the country, US officials have warned as President Barack Obama prepared to hold 
talks in May with Afghan and Pakistani leaders.
"We cannot underscore (enough) the seriousness of the existential threat posed 
to the state of Pakistan by the continuing advances, now within hours of 
Islamabad, that are being made by a loosely confederated group of terrorists and 
others who are seeking the overthrow of the Pakistani state," US Secretary of 
State Hillary Clinton told US lawmakers on Wednesday.
She urged Islamabad and the Pakistani people "to speak out forcefully against a 
policy that is ceding more and more territory to the insurgents, to the Taliban, 
to Al-Qaeda, to the allies that are in this terrorist syndicate."
Pakistani officials said Wednesday that Taliban militants in Pakistan's Swat 
valley have moved into another district, just 110 kilometers (68 miles) from the 
capital Islamabad, in a bid to broaden their control.
With US concern about stability in the region mounting, a senior US official 
confirmed Obama will host talks with Afghan President Hamid Karzai and 
Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari in early May.
Obama will meet with the two leaders separately and then the three will take 
part in a summit May 6 and 7, the Washington Post reported. The official 
declined to confirm those details.
The new US leader has put nuclear-armed Pakistan, a key regional US ally, at the 
center of the fight against Al-Qaeda as the US dispatches 4,000 more troops, in 
addition to an extra 17,000 already committed, to Afghanistan.
The plan, unveiled in March, includes a focus on flushing out Al-Qaeda 
sanctuaries in Pakistan and boosting civilian efforts to build up both 
Afghanistan and Pakistan, notably in agriculture and education.
Amid a flurry of concern about the unrest, the top US military commander, 
Admiral Michael Mullen, arrived in Islamabad from Kabul for meetings with 
Pakistani officials, a US embassy official in Islamabad said.
Mullen met army chief General Ashfaq Kayani in the garrison town of Rawalpindi, 
neighboring Islamabad, after his arrival.
The chairman of the joint chiefs of staff warned earlier Wednesday on a short, 
unannounced visit to Kabul that Americans cannot expect a swift victory against 
the insurgency despite the imminent deployment of extra troops.
"There are limits on how many troops we can provide to make a difference," he 
told ABC television.
"These 21,000 troops are absolutely vital. We don't have, we haven't had enough 
troops in Afghanistan to, once we are in an area, to clear it. We haven't had 
enough troops to hold it. And these troops will allow us to do that."
The Pakistani central government lost control in Swat, a former ski resort and 
jewel in the crown of Pakistani tourism, after a violent two-year militant 
campaign to enforce strict sharia law.
Zardari agreed to allow sharia courts in Malakand, a district of some three 
million people in North West Frontier Province that includes the Swat valley, in 
order to halt the violence.
But the Islamists have continued to try to consolidate their position, and the 
commander of the international forces, Major General Michael Tucker, said ISAF 
troops "do monitor enemy operations in Pakistan."
Asked about the Taliban's bid to expand their control beyond Swat, he said in a 
Pentagon teleconference from Afghanistan: "It is on our radar, we are concerned 
about that.
"We are in close coordination with the Pakistani army. We have a great deal of 
joint operations, sharing intelligence with the Pakistanis, conducting joint 
operations with them along with the Afghan border police and the Afghan army."
Pakistan has been rocked by a series of unprecedented Islamist attacks which 
have left some 1,800 people dead in the past 18 months, raising US concerns 
about whether the Pakistani government can withstand such pressure.
Mullen told NBC news he was concerned about the prospect of both Afghanistan and 
Pakistan descending into chaos.
"Pakistan -- it's a country that has nuclear weapons. My long-term worry is that 
descent ... should it continue, gives us the worst possible outcome there," he said.
But the Pakistani authorities rejected suggestions it need outside military help 
to combat the insurgent threat.
"Pakistan... has one of the largest armies in the world," the country's 
ambassador in Washington, Husain Haqqani, told CNN. "The military is capable of 
dealing with the insurgency."
Copyright © 2009 AFP.

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