December 19, 2008	Friday	Zilhaj 20, 1429

WASHINGTON, Dec 18: US President George W. Bush has named two countries – Pakistan and Saudi Arabia – that will continue to play a key role in the war against terror after he leaves his office on Jan 20.

“We will leave behind a strong coalition of more than 90 nations,” said Mr Bush while talking about the achievements of his eight-year rule which many in America say brought little respect for his country.

“This coalition includes Saudi Arabia, the nation that produced 15 of the 9/11 hijackers and now serves as a staunch ally in the war on terror,” he said.

“This coalition includes Pakistan, a country that was a supporter of the Taliban before September the 11th and today is a strong partner of the United States.”

Along with a transcript of his speech at the US War College on Wednesday, the White House also distributed a fact-sheet, underlining President Bush’s major achievements in the global war on terror. Pakistan played a key role in two major achievements named in the fact-sheet – removing the Taliban from power and capturing key Al Qaeda leaders.

The third – persuading Libya to give up its weapons of mass destruction and advanced missiles programmes – also is linked to Pakistan as the Libyans claimed buying nuclear technology from a group of Pakistani scientists.

The alleged mastermind of the Sept 11 terrorist attacks in the United States, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who is also mentioned in the fact-sheet, was captured in Pakistan too with the help of Pakistani security agencies.

The only major achievement mentioned in the fact-sheet and Mr Bush’s speech – invading Iraq – is not seen as an achievement by an overwhelming majority in the United States which elected an opponent of the Iraq war – Barack Obama – on Nov 4.

But this did not prevent Mr Bush from taking credit for freeing “25 million Iraqis from the rule of Saddam Hussein, a dictator who murdered his own people, invaded his neighbours, and repeatedly defied United Nations resolutions”.

Mr Bush’s claim, however, does not seem to have impressed the US media which chose instead to continue to debate an incident in Baghdad last week when an Iraqi journalist threw two shoes at him.