WASHINGTON, July 20: Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has softened his attitude towards Pakistan, telling a Sunday talk show that instead of sending US troops into Fata, he will work with the Pakistani government to root out terrorist camps from the area.
In an interview to CBS News, Mr Obama said that the United States could not solve the security problems in Afghanistan without engaging the Pakistan government.
Asked if he would consider unilateral US action against Pakistan, if the Pakistanis refused to take out known terrorist hideouts, Mr Obama said: “I will push Pakistan very hard to make sure that we go after those training camps. I think it’s absolutely vital to the security interests for both the United States and Pakistan.”
Asked if he would like US forces to take out terrorist training camps inside Fata, Mr Obama said: “Well, I think that what we would like is to see the Pakistani government take out those training camps.”
“And if they won’t”, he was asked. “Well, I think that we’ve got to work with them so they will,” he said.
Mr Obama, who visited US troops in Afghanistan and held private talks with US-installed President Hamid Karzai on Sunday, suggested that the US should use its military and economic assistance to persuade Pakistan to act against the insurgents.
“I think that the US government provides an awful lot of aid to Pakistan, provides a lot of military support to Pakistan. And to send a clear message to Pakistan that this is important, to them as well as to us, I think that message has not been sent,” he said.
Mr Obama, who in the past had advocated using direct military action to make Pakistani cooperate, said his remarks were misunderstood.
“What I’ve said is that if we had actionable intelligence against high-value Al Qaeda targets, and the Pakistani government was unwilling to go after those targets, that we should,” he said.
“My hope is that it doesn’t come to that — that in fact, the Pakistan government would recognise that if we had Osama bin Laden in our sights that we should fire or we should capture him.”
Mr Obama agreed with the interviewer that the Bush administration was already following this policy.
“I think actually this is current doctrine,” he said. “There was some dispute when I said this last August. Both the administration and some of my opponents suggested, ‘Well, you know, you shouldn’t go around saying that.” But I don’t think there’s any doubt that that should be our policy.”
Mr Obama said that a change at the White House would not affect this policy of targeting terrorist leaders on actionable intelligence.
“I don’t think there’s going to be a change there,” he said. “I think that in order for us to be successful, it’s not going to be enough just to engage in the occasional shot fired. We’ve got training camps that are growing and multiplying.”In a separate interview, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen warned that the cross-border attacks from Pakistan’s tribal belt was affecting the US ability to move forward in Afghanistan.
He insisted that Pakistan’s tribal areas had safe havens “for foreign fighters, for Al Qaeda, for Taliban and the insurgents that are now freely — much more freely able to come across the borders.”
This, he said, was a big challenge for the US and its allies and was “having an impact on our ability to move forward in Afghanistan”.
