DarkStar
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Holbrooke sees FATA as the problem
Daily Times Monitor
LAHORE: Richard Holbrooke, the American special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, looked uncharacteristically shaken, the Wall Street Journal has claimed, after meeting several Pakistani young men who told him hatred for the United States and sympathy for the Taliban were growing in the Tribal Areas they came from.
Holbrooke and Admiral Mullen were in Islamabad to explain the new American policy for the region.
Holbrooke, according to the paper, acknowledges the hardest work will be in Pakistan.
Pakistan is at the centre of our strategic concerns, he is quoted as saying, while on his way from Islamabad to New Delhi. If Afghanistan had the best government on earth, a remained as today. That is an undisputable fact, and that is the core of the dilemma that the Western nations, the NATO alliance, face today.
Asked why the US is fighting the Afghan Taliban, if Al Qaeda and Taliban leadership are in Pakistan, Holbrooke says: [T]he reason for fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan is clear: The Taliban are the frontrunners for Al Qaeda. If they succeed in Afghanistan, without any shadow of a doubt, Al Qaeda would move back into Afghanistan, set up a larger presence, recruit more people and pursue its objectives against the United States even more aggressively. Public support for the expanded US Afghan mission hinges on making this case stick.
Holbrooke insists the US will respect Pakistans red lines about American combat troops.
But he said, If the Tribal Areas of western Pakistan were not a sanctuary, I believe that Afghanistan could take care of itself within a relatively short period of time.
Daily Times - Leading News Resource of Pakistan
Daily Times Monitor
LAHORE: Richard Holbrooke, the American special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, looked uncharacteristically shaken, the Wall Street Journal has claimed, after meeting several Pakistani young men who told him hatred for the United States and sympathy for the Taliban were growing in the Tribal Areas they came from.
Holbrooke and Admiral Mullen were in Islamabad to explain the new American policy for the region.
Holbrooke, according to the paper, acknowledges the hardest work will be in Pakistan.
Pakistan is at the centre of our strategic concerns, he is quoted as saying, while on his way from Islamabad to New Delhi. If Afghanistan had the best government on earth, a remained as today. That is an undisputable fact, and that is the core of the dilemma that the Western nations, the NATO alliance, face today.
Asked why the US is fighting the Afghan Taliban, if Al Qaeda and Taliban leadership are in Pakistan, Holbrooke says: [T]he reason for fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan is clear: The Taliban are the frontrunners for Al Qaeda. If they succeed in Afghanistan, without any shadow of a doubt, Al Qaeda would move back into Afghanistan, set up a larger presence, recruit more people and pursue its objectives against the United States even more aggressively. Public support for the expanded US Afghan mission hinges on making this case stick.
Holbrooke insists the US will respect Pakistans red lines about American combat troops.
But he said, If the Tribal Areas of western Pakistan were not a sanctuary, I believe that Afghanistan could take care of itself within a relatively short period of time.
Daily Times - Leading News Resource of Pakistan