TELEGRAPH– Admiral Mike Mullen, the chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff, said the surge of 21,000 additional US troops into Afghanistan had raised the prospect that Pakistan could face even greater turmoil in the months ahead.”They want Afghanistan back,” he said. “We can’t let them or their al-Qaeda cohorts have it. We can’t permit the return of the very same safe havens from which the attacks on 9/11 were planned and resourced.
“Yet we can’t deny that our success in that regard may only push them deeper into Pakistan.
Adml Mullen said the impact of the surge of troops on Pakistan was an unknown factor in the gambit. “Can I be 100 per cent certain that won’t destabilize Pakistan?” he said. “I don’t know the answer to that.”
The Pakistani army has been fighting the Taliban in Swat and other north-western areas since a peace deal broke down earlier this month, forcing more than two million people from their homes.
Pakistan’s army yesterday predicted its fight to clear the Swat valley of Taliban infiltration would last for up to three months. The army showed captured Taliban positions in caves during a battlefield tour. “You can see by the houses in the valley that we have kept civilian casualties to an absolute minimum and not used air power in built-up areas,” Maj Gen Sajjad Ghani, the commanding officer said.
The United Nations launched an appeal yesterday for $543 million and warned of a long-term humanitarian crisis in Pakistan.
© TELEGRAPH, 2009
