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Original Commentaries
Setting the Record Straight
Keeping Focus on Long-Term Objectives
“[W]hile we do need to have a cooperative approach that involves many of our friends and allies in meeting with the Pakistanis, … as we work out with them a rough division of labor, the U.S., I believe, ought to be taking the lead in addressing the issues in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas. And given the difficulty of doing so, I suspect that we will not have a great deal of difficulty in convincing them to allow us to take the lead there. But as we all know, there is a real tension between our short-term tactical aims in trying to capture or kill terrorists across the border and militants in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas and our longer- term counterinsurgency pacification goals. We very much need to be focusing on the end state. What is it that we want this area to look like? ... In that context we need to have a common agenda with the Pakistani government and very much to include the military on counterinsurgency in that area. There needs to be, therefore, a focus on combining military efforts with economic, development and political development in those areas.”
—Robert L. Grenier, managing director and chairman for Global Security Consulting, Kroll, event, “Partnership for Progress: Advancing a New Strategy for Prosperity and Stability in Pakistan and the Region,” Center for American Progress, November 17, 2008
Middle East Analysis
February 22, 2008
“What President Musharraf has shown is an ability to provide for the country a chance to be confident in their government and confident in their democracy enough that they can go ahead and concede that they have lost seats, but continue to work together for the good of the country.”
--Dana Perino, White House Press Secretary, February 19, 2008
"The West must see how singularly unpopular he is, and to try to sort of hold on to him and to help him retain his position, or to try to stitch together alliances supportive of [former] Gen. Musharraf, would mean that the West has learned nothing and is still going against the tide. … We are with the West in the fight against terror, but the real weapon in that fight ... is an empowered people with enforceable rights."
--Aitzaz Ahsan, President of the Pakistani Supreme Court Bar Association and member of the PPP who has been under house arrest for three months, February 20, 2008