New US anti-terrorism strategy under scrutiny
- Source: The Global Times
- [00:26 May 07 2009]
- Comments
By Hao Zhou
With Pakistan’s nuclear capacity under the threat of the reemerging Taliban, the presidents of Afghanistan and Pakistan will meet in Washington today with US President Barack Obama in an attempt to iron out differences on how to fight terrorism in a new era of the US government.
Obama will meet separately with his Afghan and Pakistani counterparts, Hamid Karzai and Asif Ali Zardari, before holding an “historic” joint session with the two leaders.
The meeting is designed to beat back the Taliban and its Al- Qaida allies, while at the same time boosting rural and urban economic development, reducing corruption and coordinating military and intelligence activities, according to Fox News.
“Obama aims to build an enduring alliance with both countries, enlisting them as full partners rather than treating them as battlefields for US soldiers to fight extremists,” CNN said yesterday. Despite these comforting words to the two countries deeply troubled by terrorism and violence, US-led air strikes killed more than 100 Afghans yesterday in the Western Farah Province. That included women and children, according to AFP.
Pakistani security forces killed 35 Taliban-linked militants yesterday in the restive northwest Swat Valley. More than 40,000 civilians have fled this area since Tuesday, with North West Frontier Province scrambling to provide shelter and food for the refugees, whose total number is estimated at up to 800,000.
The Obama administration unveiled in March its new anti-terrorism strategy by sending 21,000 more troops to Afghanistan and Pakistan to defeat Al- Qaida and combat extremists. The new plan also includes pouring billions of dollars into this region to aid the two countries’ development programs.
However, US officials have growing concerns about the Pakistani military’s willingness and ability to fight extremists who threaten the nuclear-armed country’s stability.
“There is a trust deficit between the US and Afghanistan, between the US and Pakistan, and it’s going to take a long time to address that,” Bruce Riedel, who coordinated Obama’s strategy review of US policy in the region, said in an interview with Bloomberg.
But Fu Xiaoqiang, an expert in South Asia issues at the China Institute of Contemporary International Relations, downplayed the US effort to seek South Asian alliances to seek out terrorists in the region.
“Pakistan would rather partially resort to negotiations with the Taliban to regain peace,” Fu said. “The US and Pakistan have different aims in the battle against terrorists.”
“The US is eager to strengthen its military presence in Central and South Asia, helping its crackdown on Al-Qaida and the Taliban,” Su Hao, head of the Strategy and Conflict Management Research Center at China Foreign Affairs University, told the Global Times.
“China should pay close attention to developments in this neighboring area,” he said.
With additional information from agencies