Ever since the bloody raid by government troops on the Red Mosque in Islamabad earlier this month, Pakistan has been much in the news. The situation there has been serious for some time, but it has been growing more dire by the day, as strands of the crisis begin to weave together. The thriving Taliban resurgence (confirmed by the NIE report released July 17) in North Waziristan, along the Afghan-Pakistan border, has sparked fresh violence and deaths as Taliban forces react to the Red Mosque incident by rejecting nascent peace accords with the government and renewing their attacks on President Musharraf's troops. The pro-democracy riots in Lahore and other cities that followed the President’s suspension of the nation’s Chief Justice (reinstated by the Supreme Court last Friday, in a direct challenge to Musharraf's authority) and the uncertainty surrounding upcoming elections add to the popular dissatisfaction with Musharraf's government and the unrest and violence threatening the stability of one of our most essential allies in the region.
Senator Kerry touches on these issues comprehensively in this clip from his June 20 Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on the nomination of Anne Woods Patterson who is currently serving as our ambassador to Pakistan.
JK outlines the situation gravely and clearly, and stresses the necessity of U.S. demand for accountability from Pakistan in exchange for our political, military and financial support. He then asks Ms. Patterson the key question -- is it possible for Musharraf, whose government is our ally, to maintain control of a situation spiralling out of control? That question remains and becomes more relevant with every life that is lost, in border fighting, in civil unrest, and in clashes involving religious extremists. JK notes ruefully that Islam is at heart a "moderate and tolerant religion" that has been distorted by extremists.
JK has been warning of the dangers of the border regions of Pakistan as a safe haven for al-Qaeda forces (probably including Osama bin Laden) since 2004 and has not faltered in his attention to dangerous developments there. He has been consistent ever since Tora Bora in his insistence that by concentrating our forces in Iraq, we are deploying them ineffectively if we are to achieve our goal of thwarting al-Qaeda. Yesterday, he posted at The Hill's Congress Blog that tomorrow he will be chairing a SFRC hearing tomorrow "to question Undersecretary for Political Affairs Nick Burns about the administration’s plan for Pakistan — and help push the debate about how we can successfully reengage in the fight there." (You can watch a livestream of the Wednesday hearing at 2:15.)
On March 7, 2007, Senator Kerry joined Senator Biden in cosponsoring Senator Dodd's amendment of March 7, 2007," expressing the sense of the Senate that United States military assistance to Pakistan should be guided by demonstrable progress by the Government of Pakistan in achieving certain objectives related to counterterrorism and democratic reforms." Two days later, their call to action was more than justified when President Musharraf suspended the Chief Justice and violence broke out on Pakistani streets.
In his June 14 speech on national security at Johns Hopkins' School of Advanced International Studies, JK warned that
we must redouble our efforts to deny al-Qaeda leaders sanctuary in the lawless tribal areas — starting by asking more from Pakistan in return for the billions of dollars of counterterrorism aid. We cannot allow failure to simply be explained away– not in Islamabad, and certainly not in Washington.
JK has been consistent in his position that if Pakistan is to remain an ally, the U.S. must keep a careful eye on areas of potential crisis, particularly the Taliban strongholds in North Waziristan, the nation’s nuclear potential and the maintenance of democracy and human rights. Now and in the very near future, as the situation continues to worsen, we will see the wisdom of his vigilant attention and we must hope that his urgent warnings will be heeded by the Bush Administration.
Comments (1)
Posted by Karen van Hoek | July 24, 2007 11:19 PM
Thank you for this very informative post. I have to shamefacedly confess that I knew next to nothing about Pakistan (I guess I too could be accused of being too focused on Iraq), and this is a great brief introduction to what's going on there and why it's urgent. It sounds quite frightening, and once again I wish we had a president whom we could trust to handle these things in a responsible way. Thank God that at least Senator Kerry is doing all he can.