WASHINGTON, Dec 15: US President George W. Bush has indicated that drone attacks on suspected terrorist targets inside the tribal areas would continue and Washington will not consult other governments before ordering such strikes.
“You know very well that when it comes to certain matters, the US government doesn’t discuss operations,” said Mr Bush when asked if Afghan President Hamid Karzai and he were on the same page on drone attacks.
President Bush, who was talking to the White House press corps on his plane en route to Afghanistan, said he believed the Pakistani government, particularly President Asif Ali Zardari, had the determination to fight terrorists.
“President Zardari is determined,” said Mr Bush. “He’s said so publicly and he’s said so to me privately. He looked at me in the eye and said: ‘You don’t need to talk to me about extremist violence; after all, my wife got killed by extremists.’”
The US president said that for dealing with extremists who got embedded in the population, a country needed to combine pressure with a strategy to win over the hearts and minds of the local people.
“Find them and get them, press them hard, and then win the hearts and minds of the locals through economic development,” he added.
Mr Bush said that if Pakistan continued to be a place from which terrorists felt comfortable attacking infrastructure, citizens and troops, it’s going to make it difficult to succeed in Afghanistan.
“That’s why we’re working with the Pakistan government to keep the pressure on the extremists. And the more that we can get Pakistan and Afghanistan to cooperate, the easier it will be to enforce that part of the border region,” he said.
Even during this serious conversation on the situation in Pakistan and Afghanistan, Sunday’s incident, when an Iraqi journalist threw two shoes at Mr Bush, kept coming up.
Asked what Pakistan needed to do to fight terrorism, Mr Bush replied: “Well, first of all, the first question is, is there a determination” and then the engine of his plane made a sharp noise.
“The other shoe just dropped,” Mr Bush joked, causing every one to laugh.
“Quick ducking there, sir,” said a journalist referring to Mr Bush’s reaction to the shoe-throwing incident in Baghdad.
“I was worried about you. I thought you were going to have a heart attack,” said Mr Bush.
“I didn’t know what the guy said, but I saw his sole … his first … I’m pretty good at ducking, as most of you will know.”
“You were quick,” said another journalist.
“I’m talking about ducking your questions,” said Mr Bush.
“So you weren’t a lame duck,” said a third journalist, using a phrase used in the US to define a president about to hand over power to another. The comment caused moans and groans from other journalists.
“It was just a bizarre moment, but I’ve had other bizarre moments in the presidency,” said Mr Bush.
