If Afghanistan fails, Pakistan could follow: Biden

[mujahideen]

If Afghanistan fails, Pakistan could follow: Biden

By Michelle Nichols

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The United States must focus on securing and rebuilding Afghanistan because if it fails then neighboring Pakistan could follow, U.S. Sen. Joe Biden said on Monday after returning from a tour of both countries.

Biden, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said more troops are needed in Afghanistan and called for greater focus on basics like roads and power plus giving the military cash for quick projects like digging wells.

He also urged a rebuilding plan similar to the Marshall Plan under which the United States aided Europe's shattered economies after World War Two.

"Afghanistan's fate and Pakistan's future are joined and America's security is tied to both," Biden told the Council on Foreign Relations. "If Afghanistan fails, Pakistan could follow, because extremists will set their sights on the bigger prize to the east."

Frustration is rising among many ordinary people in Afghanistan over the perceived lack of development and security Western leaders promised before the Taliban were driven from power in 2001.

U.S.-led forces overthrew the Taliban's government after it refused to hand over al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden, whom Washington says is the architect of the September 11 attacks on the United States.

The militants have made a comeback in the past two years and violence is at its worst since the Taliban's fall.

More than 50,000 foreign troops led by NATO and the U.S. military are in Afghanistan battling Islamist militants who have found refuge in lawless border areas with Pakistan.

"We have spent on Afghanistan's reconstruction in six years what we spend every three weeks on military operations in Iraq," Biden, a Democrat who withdrew from the presidential race last month, said.

Biden, Democrat Sen. John Kerry and Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel visited Pakistan, India, Turkey and Afghanistan.

Biden said that if the United States makes Afghanistan its priority, then so will its allies.

"It seems time for NATO to realize that they must get fully in the fight. If Afghanistan falls, I am not sure how far behind NATO will be," he said. "If America does more, so will our allies."

Biden said Pakistan's cooperation in the fight against extremism was also critical to the success of Afghanistan but had so far been "sporadic at best," adding that Washington had to move from a policy focused on a personality -- Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf -- to one focused on the country.

He said the United States needed to triple its nonmilitary assistance to Pakistan and sustain it for a decade focusing on schools, roads and clinics, give the government a "democracy dividend" above this to jump-start progress, help Islamabad develop the country's northwest provinces and demand transparency and accountability in the military aid provided.

(Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

 

[Tiki Tam Tam]

While things may not be perfect in Pakistan, one wonders how far is the comparison with Afghanistan valid.

 

[fatman17]

While things may not be perfect in Pakistan, one wonders how far is the comparison with Afghanistan valid.

lets get serious people!

 

[Tiki Tam Tam]

lets get serious people!

I didn't get that.

How is the situation in Pakistan similar to that of Afghanistan?

The only commonality is that the fundamentalists are running amok!

Further, the political situation in both the countries are different and their goals are totally dissimilar!

 

[MastanKhan]

Hi,

Mr Biden is totally out of turn to speak about pakistan in such tones. On one hand he seems to be the friend of pakistan---free and fair elections---if free elections are not held, pakistan is a failed state---free elections are done with---now this new flare that he has lit up is absolutely outrageous---one time he says stop any money to pakistan---in the next breath he says increase it---what is this man thinking---why would pakistan be a failed state if afghanistan is a failure---vietnam is not a failed state---it has taken a long time for them to be in a better economic state---but attaching pakistan's future to afghanistan is totally macabre in nature---it is not true---it is being used to gain attention for something else. It is being used to divert attention.

Mr Biden is knwon to shoot first and think later when it comes down to pakistan.

 

[dabong1]

LOL.....what a BS article........rehash of the domino effect that the west was so sure would happin in asia with communisim...

 

[never]

he was meant to say that if (when) afghanistan fails then usa will fail.

 

[mujahideen]

Hi,

Mr Biden is totally out of turn to speak about pakistan in such tones. On one hand he seems to be the friend of pakistan---free and fair elections---if free elections are not held, pakistan is a failed state---free elections are done with---now this new flare that he has lit up is absolutely outrageous---one time he says stop any money to pakistan---in the next breath he says increase it---what is this man thinking---why would pakistan be a failed state if afghanistan is a failure---vietnam is not a failed state---it has taken a long time for them to be in a better economic state---but attaching pakistan's future to afghanistan is totally macabre in nature---it is not true---it is being used to gain attention for something else. It is being used to divert attention.

Mr Biden is knwon to shoot first and think later when it comes down to pakistan.

Well said. Let the world say what they want they will have to take back their words later and then we will say that we were right to do what we did. We need to worry about our national interests and the interests of anyone else comes second.

 

[fatman17]

i think what biden wants to say is that if the EU does not play a bigger role in afghanistan as the US wants it to, it could lead to further de-stabilization in pakistan. so it is basically a message to the EU Nato members.

 

[Janbaz]

he was meant to say that if (when) afghanistan fails then usa will fail.

It is certain that the NATO allience will also fall apart but they are reluctant to accept that as with the failiures in Iraq on whcih McCain is resting his fortunes on.

 

[IceCold]

Well lets not forget that failure in afghanistan will and always in the past had negative impacts on pakistan however pakistanies i think learnt well the first time after the fall of the soviet union and left over mess for pakistan that we cannot rely solely on what the west says and have to deal with it ourself sooner or later. By the way there will be no perminent solution, one simply cannot without the proper involvement of the tailbans in the political matters (the establishment). We need to choose from those who can sit down and talk against those who only know the way of the gun and then those who can talk need to be engaged in a dialouge so that the remaining does not get the leverage of turning those who want to talk into one of them. This is the only way we can see peace in both the nations and militancy can be reduced and this is exactly what pakistan has being saying for so long.

 

[mujahideen]

I personally have no sympathy at all for Afghans I say let them fall. If they rise it is of no benefit to us and if they fall it probably wont affect us today. I think the situation is much different today then it was during the Soviet war because back then Pakistanis had sympathy for the Afghans but today we have seen their true face and I dot think the sympathy is their any more.

 

[never]

Afghanistan is a failed state
we should for our security and stability partition tihat country as the govt in kabul are openly hostile to us.

let tha usa fall wioth them

 

[mujahideen]

How strong is taliban in pakistan?

And i wanted to know few questions?


1)i seriously dont understand pakistan position on taliban..
once taliban is dangerous to pakistan.talibani are regrouping and can destabilize pakistan again,then pakistan doesnt want to fight them once and finish them off

2)Deploy 1 lak soldiers and attack them and dont spare anyones life.it can be done in a month

3)Pakistan can reduce soldiers from eastern front and use counter insurgency methods to fight them

4)Is there any lack of will in Army or nation to fight taliban?

5)I dont understand,how can pakistan defeat taliban peacefully!!

PPP and PML(N) want to handle them peacefully.Balochistan can be handled peacefully coz its part of pakistan.

but how can pak handle Taliban peacefully?its an external group..

First of all the Taliban in Pakistan are just powerful in the tribal areas and the reason is because they carry guns. And for the rest of your questions:
1-The Taliban are a threat to Pakistan but they will never be able to overthrow the government because the fact is most Pakistanis want a secular nation, one which was envisioned by Quaid-I-Azam. The religious groups who support the Taliban aren't even popular with the people, we saw this in the recent election where the religious parties were literally wiped from the political scene.
2-As far as depolying 1 lakh soldiers are concerned, this will probably be the last resort. We have posted more the 100,000 Paramilitary troops in the area already but the Army is on stand by just in case the situation gets out of control. We saw the Army in action in Swat where the militants are wiped out and on the run.
3-Pakistan and India relationships are not that warm that Pakistan will reduce its troops from the Eastern part. As far as troops on our Eastern front are concerned we dont have many as compared to India. I think India has over a million soldiers on our broders and we have 200,000 soldiers on India's borders. Unless India's reduces its troops Pakistan cannot do the same.
4-The only lack of will in my opinion is that the people think this is Americas war and Pakistan will nto gain anything from it. Another thing which is important and many of us overlook but it is still their is that Pakistan doesn't want to get itself into a situation that it was in in 1971, where we were forced to kill our own people and as a result half the country broke away.
5-I personnaly believe that negotions are the best ways to go. Like I said we dont want a 1971 situation and if this is done peacefully it will benefit both sides I mean we wont have the loss of life we see in Iraq. In my opinion we should negotiate with the locals of the area, those who have lived and served Pakistan, but those who came during the Soviet invasion or any foreigners should be given only two choices, either leave or be killed. We need a three strategy plan to bring peace in the area which includes political, economical and if all fails military.

 

[maqsad]

Afghanistan was the only nation which was against the creation of Pakistan in 1947. They have a right wing nationalist element which has always coveted to this very day the whole of Balochistan province as well as most of NWFP, FATA and much of Kashmir as well as some of Punjab. To this very day they do not recognize the official border between the two countries originally laid out by Sir Mortimor Durand on behalf of British India and then ratified many times over by various Afghan leaders over the years.