Pakistan sanctuaries need to be destroyed for success in Afghanistan
Image via WikipediaAs President Obama prepares to release a review of American strategy in Afghanistan that will claim progress in the nine-year-old war there, two new classified intelligence reports offer a more negative assessment and say there is a limited chance of success unless Pakistan hunts down insurgents operating from havens on its Afghan border.That has been my view for years. While the Hellfire attacks on the enemy in Pakistan have been a problem for him and particularly his leadership, they are not a solution to the problem of sanctuaries. To be effective, you need a persistent force that prevents enemy movement to contact and retreat from contact. Ideally, Pakistan would provide that force. Their double game gets in the way of that solution.
The reports, one on Afghanistan and one on Pakistan, say that although there have been gains for the United States and NATO in the war, the unwillingness of Pakistan to shut down militant sanctuaries in its lawless tribal region remains a serious obstacle. American military commanders say insurgents freely cross from Pakistan into Afghanistan to plant bombs and fight American troops and then return to Pakistan for rest and resupply.
The findings in the reports, called National Intelligence Estimates, represent the consensus view of the United States’ 16 intelligence agencies, as opposed to the military, and were provided last week to some members of the Senate and House Intelligence Committees. The findings were described by a number of American officials who read the reports’ executive summaries.
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We may have more leverage with Pakistan than we realize. Where would that country and its government be if we pulled out of Afghanistan and Pakistan and stopped our subsidies. At the time of the pullout we would tell Pakistan, that we will be back if we ae attacked and we will clean out the Pakistan sanctuaries in the process.
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