Commander: Pakistan more welcoming to US
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) - January 16, 2008 Navy Adm. William J. Fallon, commander of U.S. Central Command,
said he believes increased violence inside Pakistan in recent
months has led Pakistani leaders to conclude that they must focus
more intensively on extremist al-Qaida hideouts near the border
with Afghanistan.
He called this an important change from Pakistan's traditional
focus on India as the main threat to its security, and it meshes
with Defense Secretary Robert Gates' recent comment that al-Qaida
terrorists hiding in the border area are increasingly aiming their
campaign of violence at targets inside Pakistan.
"They see they've got real problems internally," Fallon said
in a 20-minute interview with three reporters accompanying Adm.
Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, at a private
conference here of military chiefs from Middle Eastern countries,
hosted by Fallon. Pakistan was not attending.
In the latest sign of trouble, the Pakistani military said
Wednesday that Islamic militants overran a military outpost close
to the Afghan border in a battle that killed seven Pakistani
soldiers and left 20 missing.
Although Pakistan has been a close U.S. ally in the war against
terrorism since Sept. 11, 2001, the extent of U.S. military
involvement inside Pakistan is a highly sensitive subject among
Pakistanis.
"My sense is there is an increased willingness to address these
problems, and we're going to try to help them," Fallon said. He
said U.S. assistance would be "more robust," but he offered few
details. "There is more willingness to do that now" on Pakistan's
part, he said.
The Bush administration's anxiety about Pakistan's stability has
grown in recent months, not only because of its potential
implications for U.S. stability efforts in neighboring Afghanistan
but also because of worry about the security of Pakistan's nuclear
arsenal.
Senior U.S. military officials have visited there recently,
including Navy Adm. Eric Olsen, commander of U.S. Special
Operations Command.
In the interview in the seaside hotel where he and Mullen were
meeting with Middle Eastern military chiefs, Fallon said he is
concerned about weak coordination of U.S. and NATO efforts to
stabilize Afghanistan. But he stressed that the security situation
in Afghanistan is better than many realize.
"Our guys really get it," he said, referring to the 27,000
U.S. troops in Afghanistan. He said they are making inroads against
the Taliban insurgency and he sees prospects for more gains this
year.
Asked to assess the performance of NATO troops, who are in
charge of the overall security mission, Fallon demurred.
"I will not pass judgment" on NATO's efforts, he said, noting
that he was aware of a Los Angeles Times story published Wednesday
that quoted Gates as questioning the competence of NATO forces
operating in southern Afghanistan, heartland of the Pashtun tribal
area that gave rise to the Taliban movement.
"I'm worried we're deploying (military advisors) that are not
properly trained and I'm worried we have some military forces that
don't know how to do counterinsurgency operations," Gates was
quoted as saying in a Times interview.
Fallon said he is overseeing a review of the Afghanistan
mission, including not only the security effort but also the work
in the political and economic realms.
"A lot of this is less coordinated than it might be, and if we
could figure out how to get it harnessed together we might be able
to leverage all the (contributions) ... to better effect," Fallon
said.
Fallon said expanded U.S. military assistance to Pakistan would
include, but is not limited to, a U.S. training program for tribal
groups in the federally administered tribal areas bordering
Afghanistan.
The admiral is to visit Pakistan and Afghanistan next week.
He said he has been impressed with Pakistan's new military
chief, Gen. Ashfaq Kayani, who took over in December from President
Pervez Musharraf.
"I was very heartened by his understanding of what the problems
are and what he's going to need to do to meet them," Fallon said.
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