Friday
Mar272009
Full Video and Analysis: Obama Announces Pakistan-Afghanistan Strategy
Friday, March 27, 2009 at 14:13
Latest Post: Mr Obama’s War for/on Pakistan-Afghanistan - Holes in the Middle
President Obama has just spoken to unveil the strategy to win in Pakistan and Afghanistan. All the key points flagged up in headlines (and in our analyses today) were ticked: a "perilous situation" which would be met by the extra US training troops, a major increase in US civilian participation, the $1.5 billion in annual aid to Pakistan, and a campaign against corruption.
The language used by Obama, however, raises further concerns. He framed the campaign as one against "Al Qa'eda":
Reducing all the complex political, economic, and cultural dimensions of the situations in Pakistan and Afghanistan to the bogeymen of "Al Qa'eda" may be useful for US domestic politics, but it is a serious mis-representation of the insurgencies on both sides of the border. It does nothing to advance the American approach to local groups who are not simply acolytes of Osama bin Laden.
It looks like the Global War on Terror is alive, well, and being slapped bang on top of Kabul and Islamabad.
President Obama has just spoken to unveil the strategy to win in Pakistan and Afghanistan. All the key points flagged up in headlines (and in our analyses today) were ticked: a "perilous situation" which would be met by the extra US training troops, a major increase in US civilian participation, the $1.5 billion in annual aid to Pakistan, and a campaign against corruption.
The language used by Obama, however, raises further concerns. He framed the campaign as one against "Al Qa'eda":
This is not simply an American problem: far from it. This is an international security challenge of the highest order. Terrorist attacks in London, in Bali were tied to Al Qa'eda and its allies in Pakistan as were attacks in North Africa and the Middle East and Islamabad and in Kabul. If there is a major attack on an Asian, European, or Africa, it too is likely to have ties to Al Qa'eda leadership in Pakistan.
Reducing all the complex political, economic, and cultural dimensions of the situations in Pakistan and Afghanistan to the bogeymen of "Al Qa'eda" may be useful for US domestic politics, but it is a serious mis-representation of the insurgencies on both sides of the border. It does nothing to advance the American approach to local groups who are not simply acolytes of Osama bin Laden.
It looks like the Global War on Terror is alive, well, and being slapped bang on top of Kabul and Islamabad.
tagged Add new tag, Barack Obama, Pakistan, al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, India & Pakistan