JOHN KING: General Petraeus, welcome back to “State of the Union.” I want to start with the offensive under way by the Pakistani military in Pakistan. It took a long time for you to convince Pakistan to get about this. And I’m starting at the map so I can pull out and show our viewers the area we’re talking about, the Swat district up here, right in here.
Just a basic question for you, sir. This offensive has been under way for quite a bit of time now. How effective is it?
PETRAEUS: Well, let me say, I’m not sure I accept the characterization that you said. This is Pakistan’s offensive, and it was galvanized by Taliban action, certainly not by American rhetoric or encouragement. Read the rest of this entry »
The centrepiece of the Obama Administration’s Afghanistan-Pakistan sales pitch this weekend is not one but two appearances by General David Petraeus, the head of US Central Command, who showed up on “Fox News Sunday” before moving to CNN for “State of the Union”.
CHRIS WALLACE: Joining us from U.S. Central Command in Florida is General David Petraeus, who oversees American military operations in the Middle East and Central Asia.
And, General, welcome back to “FOX News Sunday.”
PETRAEUS: Good to be with you, Chris. Thanks.
WALLACE: General, let’s start with Pakistan. The military there has launched a new offensive against the Taliban in the Swat Valley. Is there any sign that this is different from earlier Pakistani military campaigns, which have not been effective?
Hillary Clinton has made headlines this morning with this warning: “I think that we cannot underscore the seriousness of the existential threat posed to the state of Pakistan by 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, a nuclear-armed state.”
Clinton has called on the Pakistani people to rise up against the threat in the Northwest Frontier Provinces: “”I don’t hear that kind of outrage and concern coming from enough people that would reverberate back within the highest echelons of the civilian and military leadership of Pakistan.”
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The political situation in Pakistan has twisted once again.
On Monday, President Asif Ali Zardari (pictured) signed the measure allowing Islamic law in the Swat Valley in northwest Pakistan. The accord had been provisionally reached in January as part of a peace deal between the Government and local groups, but Zardari — after criticism from inside and outside Pakistan — had refused final authorisation.
The Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud (pictured has told the BBC that his organization carried out Monday’s attack on the Lahore police station, in which 18 people died, “”in retaliation for the continued drone strikes on by the US in collaboration with Pakistan on our people”. Eight attackers were among the dead; another four have been detained.
There is a wider significance to Mehsud’s statement, missed by the BBC. Last month, a coalition of Pakistani insurgent groups in the Northwest Provinces agreed to suspend attacks within the country, concentrating instead of the fight against American troops in Afghanistan. The news came shortly after reports that Mehsud had been “sacked” by Afghanistan Taliban Mullah Omar for refusing to halt internal operations.
Thus the Obama Administration, as it launches its new strategy for Pakistan, faces some local groups who are devoted to fighting battles in Afghanistan and also the challenge posed within the country by Mehsud. Already a “two-front” war is developing.
The spin is in. The allies (NATO) and no-longer-allies (Afghan President Hamid Karzai, in a phone call from Barack Obama) have been briefed. So today, in time for Hillary Clinton’s showcase conference on Afghanistan at The Hague and the NATO summit over the next two weeks, the grand Obama strategy on Pakistan and Afghanistan will be unveiled.
STEP 1. TO THE CORE IN PAKISTAN
That’s right. All the early-Administration scrapping over Afghanistan — how many troops? nation-building or no nation-buiding? Karzai or no Karzai? — is still significant but it’s not the priority in this plan. Read the rest of this entry »
We’ve found an intriguing article in Time, “The Afghanistan Problem: Can Obama Avoid a Quagmire?”, valuable not as much for Joe Klein’s analysis as for the inside information fed to him.
The immediate impression is of an Administration effort to build up the urgency of the Afghanistan crisis. So we get a glance at the first, “pretty alarming” meeting on the country, held three days after Obama’s Inauguration. Of course, the President “was extremely cool and in control”, rather than screaming wildly or crying in the corner, “but some people, especially political aides like Rahm Emanuel and David Axelrod who hadn’t been briefed on the situation, walked out of that meeting stunned”. To sum up, from another participant, “Holy s***.” Read the rest of this entry »
In yesterday’s Wall Street Journal, Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari (and the very capable PR agency behind him) set out a high-profile position on the issues of the Pakistani insurgency, Afghanistan, and terrorism. However, the Journal’s headline, “Pakistan is Steadfast Against Terror: We aren’t appeasing the Taliban or terrorists in Swat”, wondrously missed the point of Zardari’s opinion piece (which is reprinted below).
Zardari did open by praising Islamabad’s role in the Washington review process: “Last week….Pakistan, the U.S. and Afghanistan agreed on a coherent military and political strategy to isolate and deal with those intent on destabilizing our region and terrorizing the world.” He “began with a fact: Pakistan’s fight against terrorism is relentless,” citing the killing of “high officials” and hundreds of fighters of Al Qa’eda and the Taliban.
Then he added his stinger: “In the highly volatile Swat Valley, our strategy has been to enter into talks with traditional local clerics to help restore peace to the area, and return the writ of the state.” Read the rest of this entry »
JOHN KING: General Petraeus, welcome back to “State of the Union.” I want to start with the offensive under way by the Pakistani military in Pakistan. It took a long time for you to convince Pakistan to get about this. And I’m starting at the map so I can pull out and show our viewers the area we’re talking about, the Swat district up here, right in here.
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The centrepiece of the Obama Administration’s Afghanistan-Pakistan sales pitch this weekend is not one but two appearances by General David Petraeus, the head of US Central Command, who showed up on “Fox News Sunday” before moving to CNN for “State of the Union”.
The political situation in Pakistan has twisted once again.
The Pakistani Taliban leader 
The spin is in. The allies (NATO) and no-longer-allies (Afghan President Hamid Karzai, in a phone call from Barack Obama) have been briefed. So today, in time for Hillary Clinton’s showcase conference on Afghanistan at The Hague and the NATO summit over the next two weeks, the grand Obama strategy on Pakistan and Afghanistan will be unveiled.
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