Some in Senate doubt Pakistan

Distrust of ally in Afghan war aired at hearing

December 04, 2009|Anne Flaherty and Pauline Jelinek, Associated Press

WASHINGTON - Facing the prospect of more American deaths in Afghanistan as the war escalates, lawmakers lashed out yesterday at neighboring Pakistan as an unreliable ally that could spare the United States its bruising fight with Al Qaeda if it wanted.

“They don’t seem to want a strategic relationship,’’ Senator Bob Menendez, a New Jersey Democrat, said of the government in Islamabad. “They want the money. They want the equipment. But at the end of the day, they don’t want a relationship that costs them too much.’’

A crucial ally in fighting the Al Qaeda terrorist network, Pakistan is also a major recipient of US aid. President Obama and Congress recently approved a $7.5 billion aid package for economic and social programs in Pakistan in a bid to strengthen the civilian government there.

But many in Congress have grown skeptical that Islamabad is doing all it can to drive out Al Qaeda forces hiding along its mountainous Afghan border. Those doubts reached a new pitch this week after Obama’s announcement that he will send 30,000 more US troops to Afghanistan by next fall, with the anticipation that they would start coming home in July 2011.

Obama has not said whether or how the troop buildup would accelerate attacks on the terrorist network hiding in Pakistan. The United States has so far relied on drone-launched missile strikes, and those operations are classified.

“It is not clear how an expanded military effort in Afghanistan addresses the problem of Taliban and Al Qaeda safe havens across the border in Pakistan,’’ said Senator Richard Lugar, the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Representative Ike Skelton of Missouri, a leading conservative Democrat, said that Obama’s strategy is the nation’s best shot but that Pakistan could end the war if it wanted.

“Conversely, if Pakistan were to return to old habits of supporting the Afghan Taliban, the war may be almost impossible to win,’’ he said.

Obama has sought to assure lawmakers and the rest of the world that he sees Pakistan inextricably linked to Afghanistan. In his speech on Tuesday, the president said both governments were “endangered’’ because of Al Qaeda.

“The stakes are even higher within a nuclear-armed Pakistan, because we know that Al Qaeda and other extremists seek nuclear weapons, and we have every reason to believe that they would use them,’’ he said in his speech from West Point.

Testifying for the second day on Obama’s new war plan, the president’s chief military and diplomatic advisers said Pakistan is a critical component of the strategy.