This interview is not as useful as that on ABC News, which we posted and analysed earlier. There’s very little beyond the Administration spin. (The duo were also interviewed on CBS News, but frankly I can’t be bothered to post the same rhetoric thrice over.)
It’s what is missing that is most interesting. How many words in this transcript concern non-military measures?
On Wednesday in Holland, I was set a challenge by a member of the audience: could I summarise, in 30 seconds, the Pakistan side of President Obama’s Tuesday speech setting out US intervention in that country as well as Afghanistan?
Here goes….
In American football, there is a desperation play called the Hail Mary pass. You’re behind 4 points and there are only 5 seconds left on the clock. So you hurl the football 60, 70, 80 yards down the field and hope against hope that one of your receivers can something snatch it for 6 points and an unlikely victory.
I’m not sure we had to wait 92 days — from the delivery of the recommendations of General Stanley McChrystal, the US commander in Afghanistan, to President Obama’s speech tonight at the US Military Academy — to get this outcome. It’s pretty much, in substance and in rhetoric, what we’ve predicted throughout the autumn. But politics is politics, especially when the “easy” solution of an Afghan election to hold up as a beacon of progress didn’t materialise.
So here’s what America and the world gets this evening:
1. SEND IN THE TROOPS: McChrystal asked for 40,000 more troops (though he wanted even more). He gets 30,000.
Obama will frame this as a carefully-considered compromise. He shows Presidential strength 1) in not simply giving the military its full demands and 2) delivering most of that demand as a sign of US resolve and commitment. The President carried out the same manoeuvre — really, the very same manoeuvre — in March.
Secretary of Defense Robert Gates’ interview with CNN’s Fareed Zakaria, conducted earlier this week, was broadcast today. While the discussion has already been overtaken by events in Pakistan and Iraq, we’ll be commenting on important clues to the future course of Obama foreign policy in an analysis tomorrow.
ZAKARIA: Secretary Gates, thank you for doing this.
Question of the Day: Who is the most important “reliable” leader in Pakistan?
No, it’s not — at least if you’re a key official in the Obama Administration — President Asif Ali Zardari. The correct answer is General Ashfaq Parvez Kiyani (pictured).
Update (23 March): President Zardari has responded to the political manoeuvres with his own call for reconciliation. In an address on Pakistan Day, he asked “everyone to work in the spirit of tolerance, mutual accommodation and respect for dissent and invite everyone to participate in the national effort for … reconciliation and healing the wounds”.
I’m not sure if this development will be noticed in the British and American press, but it could be the sign of a political arrangement for a new coalition Government and the political demise of President Asif Ali Zardari.
Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) responded in kind, saying it has no objection to a coalition government with the PPP in Punjab. Presumably this would include the restoration of Shahbaz Sharif as Chief Minister of the province.
And the striking absence in the Dawn story? Not a word from President Zardari.
Just over 48 hours after the culmination of the Long March, with the Government’s restoration of Pakistani Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, and the story has dropped out of American newspapers. But, of course, this weekend’s events were only the beginning of a new, important stage in Pakistani and regional politics.
For many, it is the beginning of hope. Perhaps, after the expression of popular protest, the legal system can be resurrected and placed above personal and party manipulation. Perhaps there can be a scrutiny which would produce a meaningful democracy rather than today’s well-connected politician who ascends to the highest office through connections rather than ability and integrity.
In no way do I want to demean that hope, but it moves alongside, and arguably trails behind, more immediate negotiations and manoeuvres after the drama of the last week. Read the rest of this entry »
12 noon GMT: Imran Khan, the leader of the Tehrik-i-Insaf (Pakistan for Justice) party, has told the media that Supreme Court Chief Justice Chaudhry was “restored by the power of the masses”. He called for cases of detentions and missing persons to be pursued by the courts.
10:15 a.m. GMT: Scenes of celebration and dancing at Iftikhar Chaudhry’s house. Dawn reporter Musadiq Sanwal writes, “Only thing everybody is saying is that this is beginning of a revolution and they expect a lot more to happen.
On the political front, Gillani confirmed the news that the Government will pursue a review of the court ruling that disqualified the leader of the Pakistan Muslim League (N), Nawaz Sharif, and his brother Shahbaz, the Governor of Punjab, from public office.
Sharif reacted with the statement, “We are now calling off this long march,” saying that the decision was made after discussions with lawyers and other political leaders such as Imran Khan. He continued, “Very soon we will play our role in implementing real democracy in this country.” Read the rest of this entry »
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On Wednesday in Holland, I was set a challenge by a member of the audience: could I summarise, in 30 seconds, the Pakistan side of President Obama’s Tuesday speech setting out US intervention in that country as well as Afghanistan?
I’m not sure we had to wait 92 days — from the delivery of the recommendations of General Stanley McChrystal, the US commander in Afghanistan, to President Obama’s speech tonight at the US Military Academy — to get this outcome. It’s pretty much, in substance and in rhetoric, what we’ve predicted throughout the autumn. But politics is politics, especially when the “easy” solution of an Afghan election to hold up as a beacon of progress didn’t materialise.
Question of the Day: Who is the most important “reliable” leader in Pakistan?
Update (23 March): President Zardari has responded to the political manoeuvres with his own call for reconciliation. 
Just over 48 hours after the culmination of the Long March, with the Government’s restoration of Pakistani Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, and the story has dropped out of American newspapers. But, of course, this weekend’s events were only the beginning of a new, important stage in Pakistani and regional politics.
12 noon GMT: Imran Khan, the leader of the Tehrik-i-Insaf (Pakistan for Justice) party, 
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