Washington: United States’ top military man warned Wednesday that the US must continue to work with Pakistan as a partner despite years of mistrust.
“We must continue to pursue a partnership with Pakistan,” Mullen told the Senate Appropriation panel’s defense sub-committee. “The alternative — drifting toward a more contentious or fractured relationship — is far more detrimental to US interests in strategically defeating al Qaeda and ensuring nuclear weapons do not fall into terrorists’ possession.”
If we leave Pakistan alone today, we should have to ready to face very dangerous Pakistan after 10 years, it is now, he maintained.
Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee Adm. Mike Mullen did not directly refer to the latest point of tension between both the countries. However, Mullen said Pakistan remains crucial to the US strategy.
Meanwhile, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, when asked about rocky relations with allies such as Pakistan and Afghanistan, Gates offered some political reality on global diplomacy.
Senator Patrick Leahy, asked Gates how long Washington should support “governments that lie to us,” adding: “When do we say enough is enough?”
Gates responded that “based on 27 years in the CIA and four and a half years in this job, most governments lie to each other. That’s the way business gets done.”
“Do they also arrest the people that help us when they say they are allies?” Leahy asked, in clear reference to Pakistan’s actions against officials who helped the US raid on bin Laden’s compound.
“Sometimes,” Gates said, “and sometimes they send people to spy on us and they are our close allies.” “That’s the real world that we deal with.”
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