[Peace-discuss] US invasion of Pakistan

[C. G. Estabrook]

[Obama's invasion of Pakistan this year resembles, mutatis mutandis, Kennedy's 
invasion of South Vietnam in 1962.  There are of course vast differences -- 
e.g., SW Asia is far more important to the US than SE Asia ever was -- but there 
is a remarkable continuity in US policy that ties the eras together.  --CGE]

	The New York Times
	August 19, 2009
	U.S. Presses Pakistan on Taliban
	By HELENE COOPER and ERIC SCHMITT

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Obama administration officials, trying to capitalize on 
recent and rare military successes in Pakistan, have been delivering strong 
private messages to military and civilian leaders here to aggressively pursue 
the Taliban and other militants, including some with close ties to Al Qaeda.

In a series of high-level meetings and phone calls that began after reports that 
an American airstrike this month had killed Baitullah Mehsud, the leader of the 
Pakistani Taliban, administration officials said they had been prodding the 
Pakistanis to keep up pressure on the militants.

The coordinated message to the Pakistanis stems in part from a desire not to 
waste what administration officials see as an important opportunity to exploit 
apparent disarray in the leadership of the Pakistani Taliban since the death of 
Mr. Mehsud, which was corroborated by a senior aide captured on Tuesday.

But it also reflects worry among senior American officials that the Pakistani 
military will now declare victory and go home — pulling back from its recent 
offensive in the Swat Valley, and avoiding a similar push into Waziristan, Mr. 
Mehsud’s power base.

“Suffice it to say that Pakistan is somewhere between a ‘clear’ and ‘hold’ when 
it comes to Swat and Waziristan,” a senior administration official said. “But 
the perception in the Pakistani military is that this is a surgical strike. They 
go and clear out Swat and Waziristan and then they can go back to fighting the 
Indians.” Neighboring India is Pakistan’s longtime rival.

Richard C. Holbrooke, President Obama’s special representative to Afghanistan 
and Pakistan, on Tuesday personally delivered the message to push on, speaking 
to Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, the Pakistani Army chief of staff, and Lt. Gen. 
Ahmed Shuja Pasha, Pakistan’s intelligence chief, during a visit to Islamabad, 
administration officials said.

Mr. Holbrooke’s meeting with General Kayani followed a similar face-to-face 
meeting — with the same message — between General Kayani and Gen. Stanley A. 
McChrystal, the leader of American and NATO combat operations in Afghanistan, 
who traveled to Islamabad on Monday to see General Kayani, administration 
officials said.

Gen. David H. Petraeus, commander of American forces in the Middle East, was to 
be in Islamabad on Wednesday for a meeting with General Kayani and was expected 
to deliver the same message, administration officials said.

This followed two phone calls between Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the 
Joint Chiefs of Staff, and General Kayani during the past week, all part of what 
one administration official described as a strategy intended to try to get the 
Pakistani military to maintain a “constant battle rhythm.”

“The purpose of my meeting today was to express our support and appreciation of 
Pakistan-U.S. military cooperation,” Mr. Holbrooke said Tuesday. “Second, in 
particular I wanted to say how impressed we are with the speed with which 
refugees have been able to return to their homes in Swat. And third, I wanted to 
encourage greater cooperation going forward.”

Mr. Holbrooke, in Islamabad over the past three days, tried three times to visit 
Swat to independently assess the gains made by the Pakistani military there. All 
attempts were canceled by the army because of what it called adverse weather, 
but there also remain lingering security concerns in the area.

During a meeting on Tuesday, Lt. Gen. Nadeem Ahmad, the commander of the 
Pakistani military wing leading the Swat reconstruction effort, told Mr. 
Holbrooke that guerrillas and militants remained in the “peripheral” mountain 
areas, but that the effort to return Swat civilians to their homes was going well.

General Ahmad said that Pakistan was facing “a moment” which, if manipulated 
properly, could damage the Taliban for good. “If we play our cards right and 
address the root causes of the problem,” like governance, justice, and the gap 
between rich and poor, General Ahmad said, the government can win back the 
tribal areas populated by Taliban militants and other extremists.

But General Ahmad equivocated when Mr. Holbrooke and other American officials 
pressed him on what steps the Pakistani military was taking to capitalize on the 
opportunity. General Ahmad said that international organizations and Pakistani 
government officials were studying what to do next.

While Mr. Holbrooke continues to press Pakistani military leaders to take him to 
Swat, the Pakistani president, Asif Ali Zardari, has yet to make a trip to the 
region, but says he will. Mr. Zardari told a small group of reporters traveling 
with Mr. Holbrooke on Tuesday night: “I do intend to go there. Yes, I do.”

Mr. Zardari called the Swat operation the “first step in the thought process” 
for ridding the country of militants. “Now everything else will be a journey,” 
he said.

In addition to his talks with Mr. Zardari, General Kayani and General Pasha, Mr. 
Holbrooke also spent Tuesday listening to Islamist critics of American policy in 
Pakistan, including Liaqat Baloch, the secretary general of the anti-American 
political party Jamaat-e-Islami.

Mr. Baloch gave Mr. Holbrook a multipage document of all the ways that, in his 
group’s view, the Americans had failed in the region: drone attacks; backing 
Pervez Musharraf, the unpopular former president; infecting Pakistan with 
American culture; and the war in Afghanistan. He told Mr. Holbrooke that 
Jamaat-e-Islami would not change its views of America until American policy changed.

Mr. Holbrooke disputed each of his points, and the two men shook hands and 
agreed to differ. Afterward, administration officials pointed to the exchange as 
an example of making good on Mr. Obama’s promise to engage the Muslim world, 
including those who disagreed with American policy.

Helene Cooper reported from Islamabad, and Eric Schmitt from Washington.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/19/world/asia/19holbrooke.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss&pagewanted=all