News
Friday, June 24, 2011
Obama announces ‘beginning of an end’ in Afghanistan
Pakistan must keep anti-terror pledges
* US president says he is ready to order more assaults against any safe havens harbouring terrorists
* No country is more endangered by violent extremists than Pakistan
WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama on Wednesday vowed the United States will “insist” Pakistan fulfill its promises to counter militant sanctuaries on its soil.
“We will work with the Pakistani government to root out the cancer of violent extremism, and we will insist that it keep its commitments,” Obama said in a televised speech on troop withdrawal plans for the war in Afghanistan. Obama’s comments underscored festering tensions between Washington and Islamabad in the wake of a unilateral US raid that killed al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in his hideout in Abbottabad last month.
In blunt language, Obama made clear he was ready to order more assaults against any safe havens harbouring those who aimed to kill Americans. “For there should be no doubt that so long as I am president, the United States will never tolerate a safe haven for those who aim to kill us: they cannot elude us, nor escape the justice they deserve,” he said.
Referring to Pakistan, Obama said “no country is more endangered by the presence of violent extremists.” The US president said his government would “continue to press Pakistan to expand its participation in securing a more peaceful future for this war-torn region.” Before his speech, Obama telephoned his Pakistani counterpart Asif Ali Zardari on Wednesday, officials in Islamabad said.
Obama announced a phased pullout of troops to end a costly war in Afghanistan. Obama’s plan to withdraw 10,000 troops by the end of the year and a further 23,000 by the end of next summer won immediate support from France’s president who promised to follow suit. About 70,000 US soldiers will, however, remain in Afghanistan even after the cuts announced by Obama, about twice the number when he took office.
European nations which have contributed troops to the military effort against the Afghan Taliban insurgency said they would also proceed with phased reductions. But the Taliban, resurgent a decade after being toppled from power following the September 11, 2001, attacks, dismissed the announcement and said only a full, immediate withdrawal of foreign forces could stop “pointless bloodshed”. They rejected any suggestion of US military gains.
In a prime-time televised appearance on Wednesday, Obama said he would withdraw 10,000 troops from Afghanistan by the end of 2011, with a further 23,000 by the end of next summer. Remaining troops would be steadily withdrawn after that. He vowed that the United States would exercise new restraint with military power. “Tonight, we take comfort in knowing that the tide of war is receding,” Obama said in a 15-minute statement.
France, Germany and Poland said they would proceed with a gradual drawdown. French President Nicolas Sarkozy, like Obama seeking re-electon next year, said in a statement that he would oversee a pullout “in a proportional manner and in a calendar comparable to the withdrawal of American reinforcements”. France’s 4,000-strong contingent is the fourth largest in Afghanistan. German Defence Minister Guido Westerwelle said his country, with 4,800 troops in the increasingly violent north, hoped by the end of the year “to be able to reduce our own troop contingent for the first time”. The head of Poland’s National Security Bureau, General Stanislaw Koziej said that Warsaw’s strategy “is similar to Obama’s as we will begin reducing our presence this year and by 2014 withdraw entirely”. Poland has about 2,500 troops in Afghanistan. agencies
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk