US respects Pakistan’s sovereignty: Bush

[pkpatriotic]

US respects Pakistan’s sovereignty: Bush
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Zardari says democracy is the answer to all problems
By Muhammad Saleh Zaafir

NEW YORK: US President George W Bush on Tuesday assured President Asif Ali Zardari that his country respects Pakistan's sovereignty and its sovereign right to defend itself against terrorism.

Bush sat down for his first face-to-face meeting with Zardari to discuss security and economic issues before they attended the UN General Assembly.The two presidents had their maiden meeting here in the Waldorf Astoria Hotel where the US President is staying. It lasted about an hour.

He reaffirmed US commitment to Pakistan's economic development and cited Washington's bipartisan support in this respect.President Asif Ali Zardari thanked the US for its support for the revival of democracy in Pakistan.

The US president welcomed the newly elected Pakistani leader and assured him of his country's cooperation. They discussed enhancing bilateral relationship with the US leader, pledging support for Pakistan in the economic and security fields.

The two presidents held discussion on a number of issues of mutual interest. President Bush at the outset expressed profound sense of grief over the heavy loss of lives on the weekend bombing on the Marriott hotel, Islamabad.

President Zardari expressed the confidence that Pakistan would be able to overcome its problems."Democracy is the answer" to the problems facing Pakistan, he said. "We have problems, we have a situation but we will solve them."

President Bush said: "I thank you for coming. And I have really been looking forward to this meeting; after all, Pakistan is a close and important friend." He offered his deepest condolences to the victims of those who died as a result of the terrorist attack in Islamabad.

"I know that you -- your heart goes out to the families of those who suffered and so does the collective heart of the American people; we stand with you," George Bush said.

Recalling his meeting with Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari and his two sisters in Beijing on the occasion of opening of Beijing Olympics, the US president said he got to know Zardari a little bit in an interesting way when he met the children at the Olympics.

"It reminded me about the great suffering that they and you have been through with the loss of your beloved wife. And I thank you very much for staying involved in public service to honour her legacy," President Bush said.

He said Pakistan is an ally and he looks forward to deepening the relationship. "We'll be discussing, of course, how to help spread prosperity. We want our friends around the world to be making a good living. We want there to be economic prosperity and we can work together, and of course we'll be talking about security. And your words have been very strong about Pakistan's sovereign right and sovereign duty to protect your country, and the United States wants to help," the US president said.

Referring to the current economic difficulties of the United States, President Bush said the world leaders are wondering whether or not the United States has the right plan to deal with this economic crisis.

"I've assured them that the plan laid out by Secretary Paulson is a robust plan to deal with a serious problem. And now they're wondering about our Congress and I've assured them as well that having spoken to the leaders of the Congress from both political parties there is the desire to get something done quickly," he added.

President Bush observed that there's a natural give-and-take when it comes to the legislative process. There are good ideas that need to be listened to in order to get a good bill out that will address the situation.

"I'm confident that there will be a bipartisan bill, that the Republicans and Democrats will come together to get this piece of legislation passed, which is necessary to address the financial situation and provide a rescue plan to make sure that there's some stability in the markets," he said.

President Zardari thanked President Bush and said: "Thank you for your kind words. Thank you for your thoughts. As always, you prove to the world that your heart is in there for us Pakistanis, we respect your feelings, we respect the American ideals. And we bring to this the whole concept of your promise to the world of bringing democracy to Pakistan. Democracy has come full circle and it's been the help of all the friends around the world and we are thankful to the world for helping democracy."

He said: "Democracy is the answer. We will solve all the problems. We have a situation. We have issues. We've got problems. But we will solve them and we will rise to the occasion. That's what my wife's legacy is all about. That's what democracy is all about, to take difficult decisions and do the right thing for the people of our country and our two great nations. We should come together in this hard time and we will share the burden and the responsibility with the world," President Zardari concluded.

President Zardari was assisted by Foreign Minister Shah Mehmud Qureshi, Finance Minister Syed Naveed Qamar, Information Minister Sherry Rehman, National Security Advisor Maj-Gen Mehmud Ali Durrani, Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir, Pakistan's ambassador to the United States Hussain Haqqani, Pakistan's permanent envoy to the United Nations Hussain Haroon while the US President was assisted by Secretary of State Dr Condoleezza Rice, National Security Adviser Hadley and Assistant Secretary of State for Central and South Asia Richard Boucher.

[pkpatriotic]

Bush’s words mean nothing as Obama is hawkish on Pakistan
NEW YORK: Pakistan's summit- level interactions with US leaders make it clear that no one has, nor is anyone looking for, a quick fix solution to the complicated issue of how to make US military intervention in Pakistani territory compatible with the Pakistan-US alliance against the war on terror.

Pakistani officials candidly admit that the Bush-Zardari meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly on Tuesday was more of a courtesy call and a feeble attempt to control the fast downslide in their relations because President Bush is already a lame duck and the US military establishment is waiting for who would be the next man to occupy the White House.

Although, President Asif Ali Zardari gave a much better display of self-confidence and articulated his remarks well after Bush, there was hardly anything new in Bush's remarks except for the oft-repeated mantra that the US respects Pakistan's sovereignty and its sovereign right to defend itself against terrorism. Yet he only restricted himself to acknowledging Pakistan's right to defend itself against terrorism, not against foreign intervention, which ironically is being made by his own forces.

Zardari's meetings with the Bush administration may help him improve his own image worldwide and within Pakistan, in terms of his confidence and ability to become a statesman on the world stage, yet what he needs are serious detailed sessions with the Democrats who are likely to call all the shots after the Nov 4 elections in the US.

Pakistani officials are mindful here of the transitional phase in Washington and Zardari's schedule does include talking on telephone to Barack Obama and his running mate Joe Biden but the detailed session will be with former secretary of state Madeleine Albright who will talk to him on behalf of Obama. It would be in these interactions that President Zardari will get the real view of what he should expect in terms of honouring Pakistan's sovereignty under a new president.

As expected, if Barack Obama becomes the president, American policy towards Pakistan will become too hot to handle for Zardari as the Democrats are committed to increasing the US presence in Afghanistan and more direct intervention in Fata in hot pursuit of terrorists. That will, obviously, tear to shreds all present promises and commitments being made to respect Pakistan's sovereignty.

The Democratic nominee is not saying at all that he will respect Pakistan's sovereignty. He has long argued he "would go after high-value al-Qaeda targets in Pakistan if the country's (current) president was not willing to act." Obama is pro-war in Afghanistan and Pakistan but anti-war in Iraq. In a recent interview with FoxNews channel's Bill O'Reilly he was asked categorically: "You're not going to invade Pakistan, senator, if you're president. You're not going to send ground troops in there. You know it."

Obama said: "For example, we are providing them military aid without having enough strings attached. So they're using the military aid that we use to Pakistan, they're preparing for a war against India.

O'REILLY: So you're going to pull it out and let the Islamic fundamentalists take them over?

OBAMA: No, no, no, no. What we say is, look, we're going to provide them with additional military support targeted at terrorists, and we're going to help build their democracy and provide...

O'REILLY: We're doing that now. Negroponte's over there, and he's doing that.

OBAMA: That is not what we've been doing, Bill. We've wasted $10 billion with Musharraf without holding him accountable for knocking out those safe havens."

According to analysts, Obama's plan to defeat terrorism recognises the role of Pakistan from the very start. His plan states: "Al Qaeda has built a stronghold in the tribal areas of northwestern Pakistan. Terror groups affiliated with or inspired by al Qaeda are flourishing around the world."

Obama will end the war in Iraq so that he can focus on what he calls the right battlefield — Afghanistan and Pakistan. He argues for both military and diplomatic solutions with Pakistan.

But if by a long shot, Republican John McCain gets into the White House, for Pakistan it would still be bad news as the Congress and the budget strings are controlled by Congress and a long phase of confrontation on many issues will cripple Washington's capacity to actually coordinate the war on terror. The people of America are looking for a change and McCain's victory would mean more of the same in the White House and a belligerent Congress working for a change.

McCain is mostly confused on what he will do with Pakistan. Analysts say he has made comments from time to time on the issue and he does demonstrate an important recognition of the danger of American interference, via force, in Pakistan's political process, something which comes close to respecting the sovereignty of Pakistan.

For instance, he said in August 2007 that he was clearly opposed to unauthorised aggression into Pakistan, arguing "bombing Pakistan without their permission" would be a mistake. This of course came before the President Bush's authorised aggression across the border, according to popular online newspaper The Huffington Post.

But McCain has so many other negatives that the American people will find it hard to throw up a potential gridlock situation, specially at a time when America wants to get out of the eight years of the Bush mess, just as Pakistan wants to clean up the Musharraf mess, but has not yet started doing it. In this context, Zardari's meetings in New York would be more of a real time training session in world diplomacy as conducted by great statesmen, specially in learning how to analyse and extract the real meaning from what people say in public and what they emphasise in closed-door sessions.

For world leaders, it would be instructive to know the new leader of Pakistan, specially when they would contrast him with Benazir Bhutto whom most of them knew so well. It would be naive to look for a 'yes or no' answer to the question whether Zardari had a successful visit to New York.

By Shaheen Sehbai

[pkpatriotic]

Bush-Zardari summit
Presidents Asif Ali Zardari and George W Bush met on the sidelines of the UN in New York on Tuesday and the latter more or less said what he has been saying all along in public — that his government would respect sovereignty of Pakistan. Prior to his meeting with President Bush, President Zardari said in an interview that he believes only Pakistani troops should fight within the country, and that any incursion across the Pakistan-Afghanistan border would be a ‘violation of the UN Charter’. President Bush acknowledged in his address to the UN that Pakistan was actively pursuing terrorists and told President Zardari that America wanted to help Pakistan protect its sovereignty. This particular aspect of the US-Pakistan relationship is critical and could well determine the course and nature of the bilateral relationship.

Of course, the issue of how America and Pakistan resolve the issue of sovereignty — especially the former respecting that of the latter — while remaining on the same side of the war is something that will need care and attention from either side. There can be no doubt at all that the war against militancy is Pakistan’s own war. This year more than 2,000 have died in the country as a result of violence related to terrorism. All, with perhaps a dozen exceptions, have been Pakistanis.

Perceptions are as crucial as reality, and the widely held belief that Pakistan is fighting this war as a US proxy has done great damage to the effort against militancy. What people believe decides how they act, and even now, after the horrendous scenes at the Marriott in Islamabad, there is some evidence of a division in opinion. While almost everyone has condemned the attack, some have still suggested it was primarily an attack on the US or that there is perhaps a foreign hand involved (pointing of course to some of our neighbours). Vague reports of the presence at the ill-fated hotel of US marines and mysterious equipment have added to this. Pakistan then needs to keep up its efforts to ensure the war the terrorists are waging is seen as one against it, its people and its very existence as a state.

There is also a need to understand the war better. There are still those who insist that no Muslim could engage in such an act against fellow Muslims. The links between Kabul and New Delhi are referred to every now and then. But this amounts essentially to a reluctance to face up to facts. Zealots claiming religion as their motive have killed Muslims before, they will do so again. It is also a fact that the war and the existence of groups such as the Taliban are a result of games involving geo-political strategy, and indeed wealth. They have little to do with religion. The opium trade, the influx of money and arms and the quest for power all link up. Religion is a tool simply to exploit the sentiments of those at the bottom of this pyramid. Having said that, relations between Afghanistan and India are a source of considerable unease for Pakistan’s military and perhaps this has to do with the country’s past and the not-so-good relations that it has had with these neighbours. This issue is significant given that Pakistan needs its army to tackle the terrorists. The military in turn needs the complete support of the general public - and the tragic Marriott blast may well prove to be a catalyst in this regard - and the confidence to abandon past policies in pursuit of new aims, the most important of which is the war against terrorism and militancy.

The Bush-Zardari summit may have ended on a positive note but the real test of the words will be how things shape up on the ground.

Washington and Islamabad will have to undertake a serious and major review of their strategies and tactics to fight terror. And in this review the US must be seen as a friend of Pakistan not as an enemy in this war. As for President Zardari, he and his team must set about undoing the complex web of realities that are a part of the problem, so that they can find a way of dismantling the terror networks that operate within our territory and threaten every town and every city within it.

[Munir]

Pakistan's Zardari Tries to Keep His Distance from US
By OMAR WARAICH / ISLAMABAD Wednesday, Sep. 24, 2008
Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari meets with President Bush in New York City on Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2008
Pablo Martinez Monsivais / AP
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It was supposed to be a triumphant week for Asif Ali Zardari. Inaugurated as Pakistan's new President on Saturday, the sharp-suited, silver-tongued and often controversial widower of Benazir Bhutto was then to fly to New York City to make his debut on the world stage by addressing the United Nations General Assembly. Instead, he finds himself struggling to maintain his political footing in the face of contending pressures that threaten to knock him off balance.

Hours after his inauguration, "joy was turned into grief," as he put it, as a massive explosion ripped through the Marriott Hotel in the heart of his capital, killing 53 people and injuring over 250 in what local media dubbed "Pakistan's 9/11." The shock and anger provoked by the attack did spark a long-overdue debate on the increasingly lethal threat posed by al-Qaeda and Taliban militants sheltering in the mountainous tribal areas along the Afghan border and in the scenic Swat valley — not just to NATO forces in Afghanistan but also to Pakistan itself.

Still, Zardari finds himself precariously balancing, on the one hand, growing demands from Washington for more sustained and decisive action against the extremists, and on the other, widespread opposition at home to Pakistan's involvement in the Bush Administration's "war on terror." Former President Pervez Musharraf once described it as a delicate art of "tightrope walking"; the problem for Zardari is that the rope is fraying and the winds are growing fierce. According to a June poll conducted by the International Republican Institute, 71% of Pakistanis oppose Pakistan's cooperation with the U.S. against Islamist militants. For critics of the policy, it has always been "an American war" forced on an unwilling country, and they blame it for bringing the Afghan conflict over the border and encouraging a wave of terrorism in Pakistan's major cities.

Recent American actions have done little to make Zardari's life easier. Two days after the Marriott bombing, U.S. helicopters seeking to cross into Pakistan were repelled by gunfire from Pakistani troops and local tribesmen. An earlier ground assault in a remote village in South Waziristan had allegedly killed up to 20 civilians, and it sparked a chorus of criticism led by army chief General Ashfaq Kayani, who vowed to protect Pakistan's borders "at all costs."

Washington sees little choice but to step up operations inside Pakistan, seeing them as essential to reversing the security decline in Afghanistan where, according to Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Admiral Mike Mullen, "time is running out." Pakistan has failed to wipe out the sanctuaries in the tribal areas from which Taliban insurgents routinely stage attacks on NATO forces across the border. And after allegedly discovering evidence of the Inter Services Intelligence agency's abiding ties to militant networks, Washington no longer trusts the Pakistani military with its operational intelligence. The U.S. also believes that the Pakistani army, equipped for conventional warfare against India, is ill suited to the counterinsurgency mission in the tribal areas.

The problem for Zardari is that U.S. impatience with Pakistan's efforts against the militants risks undermining his government's efforts to win the allegiance of the tribes along the border in order to isolate the extremists, and to win political support more broadly. U.S. actions also complicate Zardari's relationship with the army, which has been a lot more strident in its opposition to such operations than the government has been. This has created pressure on Zardari to amplify his own opposition to U.S. attacks, which he this week termed a "violation of the U.N. charter." The Pakistani leader urged restraint from the U.S. during his first meeting with President Bush, on Tuesday in New York. According to leading Pakistani analysts, Zardari's prospects depend on him shaking off the growing perception at home that he is merely acting on Washington's orders. The Marriott bombing, they say, is his opportunity to launch a "homegrown" strategy to combat militancy, making it "Pakistan's own war."

As the militants launch more random attacks on Pakistani civilians, there are strong signs that growing numbers of Pakistanis are ready to embrace the fight against terrorism as their own. "It may have started off as America's war, but this is now clearly Pakistan's fight," says retired general turned liberal analyst Talat Masood, echoing a widely held view in the wake of the Marriott attack. To turn that sentiment into an effective campaign, however, Masood says the government will need support from previously ambivalent political parties — and to do that, it will have to demonstrate its independence from Washington.

Zaffar Abbas, an expert on militancy and a senior editor at Dawn newspaper, concurs. "If it is perceived to be an American war, the question being raised is, Why should we become a part of it?" he says. "The realization is not there in Washington that the more they talk about their own war, their demands asking for more to be done, it has a very negative impact within the country. If the policy instead comes from parliament, even if it is diluted to some extent, it will be Pakistan's own policy. It will lift the morale of confused troops and can galvanize the support of the people."

Opinion polls during the previous regime revealed that as General turned President Musharraf grew unpopular, so did the army he led and his U.S. backers. Over the past year, anti-American sentiment has become widespread even among secular liberals who felt betrayed by Washington's continuing to back a shopworn military dictator in the face of democratic opposition. The strong skepticism toward U.S. methods and intentions in Pakistan's civil society and its mass media means that Zardari may struggle to build and maintain support for a more muscular response to the extremists.

Over the past six months, the government's focus has been elsewhere — on internal political wrangling and the pressures of an economy on the verge of meltdown. It has initiated no national discussion in parliament on the issue, nor has it moved to draw in former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, whose rising popularity and clout among conservative elements could prove a decisive factor. Laments Abbas: "The mistake they are making is the same as General Musharraf made by not bringing on political forces [or] generating [supportive] public opinion, and [by] resorting to unilateral actions."