In a press conference this week, Joe Biden called Afghanistan the forgotten war, and Pakistan the neglected frontier. Yesterday, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, intent on insuring the new opportunities resulting from post-election Pakistan are not neglected, questioned Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte on the Bush administration's plans for working with the newly elected Pakistan parliament.
As Senator Kerry noted:
"We have seen elections where nothing happens after the fact... We made certain that what we heard from President Musharraf, that his commitment to help Pakistan return to civilian rule remains genuine. An election alone does not make for real democracy, let alone a functioning government."
Of course, the future Pakistan is largely in the hands of the new parliament, and the election results are a hopeful sign, as well as a real opportunity for the US to forge a new relationship with what we all hope will be a real functioning democracy. The senators urged that we seize upon this chance to significantly increase non-military aid in addition to refocusing on the training and support of the Pakistan military to deal with militant extremists and the various indigenous insurgencies.
Video Credit: C-SPAN
There is, of course, the Senator's original plan with respect to the Taliban and Al-Qaeda to 'talk them to death', but that would require a whole lot more Senators, so probably best to go with plan 'B'.
