By Stephen Kaufman
Staff Writer
Washington — The Pakistani government has become “very serious” about fighting the violent extremist organizations within its borders, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton says, and while there is more work to be done she envisions greater cooperation between the United States and Pakistan against terrorist groups as more trust is built between the two governments.
Clinton spoke with several reporters who traveled with her July 18 to Islamabad, where she led a U.S. delegation for a meeting with Pakistani officials as part of the U.S.-Pakistan Strategic Dialogue.
She told CBS’s Maria Usman that Pakistani officials have reached their own conclusion that terror organizations, which have targeted innocent Pakistani civilians, are seeking to undermine the Pakistani state, and over the past 18 months they have made “the extraordinary commitment of military assets against different terrorist groups that we now see.”
“The horrific attacks on religious shrines and mosques and markets and so many places where people are just going about their daily lives illustrates the approach that these terrorist groups are taking. It’s very much against Pakistan,” Clinton said. The Pakistani government “has become very serious about fighting terrorism within their own borders and working with Afghanistan and the United States to try to stabilize the region.”
Despite recent terror operations undertaken by al-Qaida affiliates in Somalia and Yemen, “the brain center [and] the operational planning” of the organization still exist in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Clinton told Greta Van Susteren of Fox News that Pakistani cooperation has enabled the United States to “track and kill a lot of [al-Qaida’s] principal leadership” and said she believes the Obama administration has also moved closer to capturing or killing Osama bin Laden or al-Qaida’s second in command, Ayman al-Zawahiri.
“We have been able to kill a number of their trainers, their operational people, their financiers. We’ve been able to do that, so in that sense we have gotten closer. But I won’t be satisfied till we get it done,” she said.
Although Pakistani security forces and civilians are paying a huge price through violence and loss of life due to the terrorist networks in their country, in cooperating against terrorism the United States and Pakistan are working to repair a “huge trust deficit,” and Clinton acknowledged that because of the U.S. approach to the region during the former Soviet Union’s invasion and occupation of Afghanistan, “we had helped to create the problem we’re now fighting.”
It would be a mistake for the United States to walk away from Pakistan and Afghanistan again, Clinton said. There are “consequences we’re well aware of.”
The U.S.-Pakistan Strategic Dialogue is helping to build confidence and trust between the two countries that was previously lacking, the secretary told NBC’s Andrea Mitchell. The dialogue has sought to focus on areas of mutual interest such as governance, water, energy, health and jobs, as well as security, and Clinton said, “The constant exchanges of information between our military and civilian leaders with theirs has begun to build a level of candor that, frankly, was missing.”
As Pakistani officials debate whether their country can simultaneously fight al-Qaida and other groups, and possibly question the long-term commitment of the United States, Clinton said the Obama administration’s argument to them is “very simple” on the need to confront terrorism.
“You’ve got to take on every nongovernmental armed force inside your country, because even though you think they won’t bother you today, there’s no guarantee. It’s like keeping a poisonous snake in your backyard. You think, oh, it’ll only go after the stranger or the intruder. You don’t know whether tomorrow it’ll go after you,” she said.
The secretary said she is finding “greater receptivity” to that argument, but “we’re still having to really make it strongly.”
Clinton told the BBC’s Kim Ghattas that President Obama has changed the U.S. foreign policy approach to the region by directing U.S. officials to look at the interconnectedness between Pakistan and Afghanistan. The United States has also encouraged greater cooperation between the two countries and a decrease in the “historic mistrust” that has existed between their people and their leaders.
“We don’t see how you get a stable Afghanistan or a long-term outlook for stability in Pakistan if there is not some better coordination and cooperation between the two countries,” Clinton said. “And we are very much in the mindset that the more cooperation and the more that they begin to see a common future, particularly as against the destabilizing effects of the terrorist groups, the better it will be.” |
