Consider this remark of former CIA director Michael Hayden.
Taliban and Al Qaeda militants are hiding not only in tribal areas but also in Pakistani cities, he told a gathering Pakistanis in Washington in the presence of former US Senator Richard Lugar, the author of the $7.5 billion Kerry-Lugar assistance package to Pakistan during Bush presidency.
The occasion was the annual convention of Pakistani physicians in North America and a dinner arranged by the alumni of the Allama Iqbal Medical College to coincide with the I-Day celebrations back home.
Gen Hayden welcomed the military operation in North Waziristan as a step in the right direction, according to Anwar Iqbal’s dispatch in the sedate English daily, Dawn, of Karachi, but warned that it was not enough.
“Pakistan will have to deal with the militants hiding in the cities as well if it wants to defeat terrorism”, the General, who knows Pakistan’s nexus with jihadis as the back of his palm, said.
Hayden led the Central Intelligence Agency between 2006 and 2008.
From this thesis flowed his two-fold advisory.
One Afghanistan and Pakistan need to work hard to eliminate safe havens and to cooperate with one another.
Two the US should help Pakistan in bringing development to terrorism-afflicted areas.
He doesn’t appear to be taken in by the logic that the US should withdraw its forces from Kabul for good.
“I strongly believe that a residual American force is good for America, good for Afghanistan and good for Pakistan,” said Gen Hayden while stressing the need for continued US presence in the region.
He made an interesting confession, which must gladden the Pakistani hearts.
“The United States should help Pakistan in bringing development to terrorism-afflicted areas, he said, and blandly admitted that Washington has not been nearly good enough in that kind of effort.
“When I was in government, we tried to build economic opportunity zones in the tribal region with the Pakistani government,” he said in reference to the George W Bush administration’s moves. But the proposal made no headway because “there were objections from American labour unions” with regard to labour laws in Pakistan.
“Those are the kinds of things, we need to do. We need to change conditions on the ground to give the people in the tribal region economic opportunity,” Pakistani news agency, APP quoted him as saying.
If Hayden-Speak has takers on the Capitol Hill, it will translate into more green backs for cash strapped Islamabad.
Already there is a campaign from the likes of former Senator Richard Lugar, for another package after the $7.5 billion Kerry-Lugar assistance package expires later this year.
