jitender_singh
January 27th, 2006, 03:42 PM
Washington, Jan 27: In a stinging editorial, The Washington Post has warned the Bush administration about the dangers of mollycoddling Pakistan's leadership and roundly criticised President Pervez Musharraf for not controlling terrorists, including those attacking India.http://autofeed.msn.co.in/pandorav3/output/News/9a5a5b4e-1565-46ec-af01-a683e2b25779_1.jpg</IMG> It also took a swipe at President George W. Bush for not applying his principles across the board after his post-9/11 declaration that anyone harbouring terrorists was Washington's enemy.
In an editorial entitled "The War in Pakistan", the Post, a paper that greatly influences public opinion not just in the capital but elsewhere, said Musharraf was indeed lucky that Bush did not evenly apply his post-9/11 declaration.
The editorial comes in the wake of Pakistan Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz's meeting with Bush and his bombastic talk in Washington against the attack by a US unmanned missile that took civilian lives in Pakistan but is also rumoured to have done in two top Al Qaeda operatives.
Musharraf and his aides, such as Aziz, boast that Pakistan has arrested hundreds of Al Qaeda militants and deployed tens of thousands of troops in the border region near Afghanistan, the Post noted.
"Yet Gen. Musharraf has never directed his forces against the Pashtun Taliban militants who use Pakistan as a base to wage war against American and Afghan forces across the border. He has never dismantled the Islamic extremist groups that carry out terrorist attacks against India. He has never cleaned up the Islamic madrassas that serve as a breeding ground for suicide bombers.
He has pardoned and protected the greatest criminal proliferator of nuclear weapons technology in history, A.Q. Khan, who aided Libya, North Korea and Iran. And he has broken promises to give up his military office or return Pakistan to democracy," the paper ticked off each point that Washington has over the years whitewashed in an effort to placate a critical ally.
It urged the Bush administration to continue the war on terror in the border of Pakistan and Afghanistan regardless of admonitions from Islamabad that the US must take its permission to do so.
"In the years since, he (Bush) has refrained from applying that tough principle in practice - which is lucky for Pakistan's president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf," said the paper.
"Ever since the war on terrorism began, this meretricious military ruler has tried to be counted as a US ally while avoiding an all-out campaign against the Islamic extremists in his country, who almost surely include Osama bin Laden and his top deputies," the paper asserted.
"Despite mounting costs in American lives and resources, he has gotten away with it," it added.
The Al Qaeda continues to operate and southern Afghanistan is infested with the Taliban.
"More than 125 American soldiers have been killed there in the past year, many of them by militants crossing the border," and Osama bin Laden is apparently secure enough to have released an audiotape last week threatening more attacks inside the United States, the paper pointed out.
Yet Washington is giving $600 million in military and economic aid to Musharraf, it added, apart from calling him a main ally in the war on terror, even as American forces have stepped up activities in the border areas clandestinely. Drones or unmanned aircraft armed with missiles, have attacked alleged terrorist targets.
"In keeping with his double game, Gen. Musharraf's government publicly criticised the latest attack even though his intelligence service reportedly cooperated with it," the paper declared.
"Now he and Mr. Aziz, who met with Mr. Bush this week, are saying US forces should carry out no more such attacks without Pakistani agreement. We'll assume that's more of their bluster. Even if it is not, Mr. Bush should ignore it," the paper recommended.
Calling Musharraf's alliance as "feckless cooperation" the paper said, "If targets can be located, they should be attacked - with or without Gen. Musharraf's cooperation."
In an editorial entitled "The War in Pakistan", the Post, a paper that greatly influences public opinion not just in the capital but elsewhere, said Musharraf was indeed lucky that Bush did not evenly apply his post-9/11 declaration.
The editorial comes in the wake of Pakistan Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz's meeting with Bush and his bombastic talk in Washington against the attack by a US unmanned missile that took civilian lives in Pakistan but is also rumoured to have done in two top Al Qaeda operatives.
Musharraf and his aides, such as Aziz, boast that Pakistan has arrested hundreds of Al Qaeda militants and deployed tens of thousands of troops in the border region near Afghanistan, the Post noted.
"Yet Gen. Musharraf has never directed his forces against the Pashtun Taliban militants who use Pakistan as a base to wage war against American and Afghan forces across the border. He has never dismantled the Islamic extremist groups that carry out terrorist attacks against India. He has never cleaned up the Islamic madrassas that serve as a breeding ground for suicide bombers.
He has pardoned and protected the greatest criminal proliferator of nuclear weapons technology in history, A.Q. Khan, who aided Libya, North Korea and Iran. And he has broken promises to give up his military office or return Pakistan to democracy," the paper ticked off each point that Washington has over the years whitewashed in an effort to placate a critical ally.
It urged the Bush administration to continue the war on terror in the border of Pakistan and Afghanistan regardless of admonitions from Islamabad that the US must take its permission to do so.
"In the years since, he (Bush) has refrained from applying that tough principle in practice - which is lucky for Pakistan's president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf," said the paper.
"Ever since the war on terrorism began, this meretricious military ruler has tried to be counted as a US ally while avoiding an all-out campaign against the Islamic extremists in his country, who almost surely include Osama bin Laden and his top deputies," the paper asserted.
"Despite mounting costs in American lives and resources, he has gotten away with it," it added.
The Al Qaeda continues to operate and southern Afghanistan is infested with the Taliban.
"More than 125 American soldiers have been killed there in the past year, many of them by militants crossing the border," and Osama bin Laden is apparently secure enough to have released an audiotape last week threatening more attacks inside the United States, the paper pointed out.
Yet Washington is giving $600 million in military and economic aid to Musharraf, it added, apart from calling him a main ally in the war on terror, even as American forces have stepped up activities in the border areas clandestinely. Drones or unmanned aircraft armed with missiles, have attacked alleged terrorist targets.
"In keeping with his double game, Gen. Musharraf's government publicly criticised the latest attack even though his intelligence service reportedly cooperated with it," the paper declared.
"Now he and Mr. Aziz, who met with Mr. Bush this week, are saying US forces should carry out no more such attacks without Pakistani agreement. We'll assume that's more of their bluster. Even if it is not, Mr. Bush should ignore it," the paper recommended.
Calling Musharraf's alliance as "feckless cooperation" the paper said, "If targets can be located, they should be attacked - with or without Gen. Musharraf's cooperation."