PRESIDENT Barack Obama’s plan to create a unified US strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan marks his effort to sever his administration’s approach from the failures of the past.
But administration officials are struggling to identify a clear path around the same problem that has undermined US policy in those countries for much of the past seven years: The United States can operate freely in Afghanistan, the nation where Al-Qaeda used to be based, but has limited ability to control what happens in neighboring Pakistan, which the network calls home now.
The policy unveiled Friday put the consequences of those constraints in sharp relief.
In Afghanistan, the US is poised to send an additional 21,000 troops and to train thousands of Afghan soldiers and police officers, while working directly with the government to bring corruption under control.
In Pakistan, however, the US approach hinges on providing an extra $5 billion in aid over the next five years and leaning on that nation to take steps against the militants that it has so far been unwilling, or unable, to take.
The skepticism surrounding Pakistan’s ability to assert control in its tribal areas prompted even architects of the Obama plan to describe that component as the most difficult aspect of the strategy.
“Of all the dilemmas, problems and challenges we face, that’s going to be the most daunting,” said Richard C. Holbrooke, Obama’s special envoy overseeing US efforts in the region.
“You could have a great government in Kabul,” Holbrooke said Friday, speaking of the Afghan capital. But, “If the current situation in western Pakistan continued, the instability of Afghanistan would continue.”
In some ways, the roll-out of the strategy last week marked the beginning of a concerted effort to increase the pressure on Pakistan.
Obama described the country’s border region as “the most dangerous place in the world,” and warned that the United States’ patience was wearing thin after providing more than $12 billion in aid to Pakistan over seven years only to see Al-Qaeda remain intact.
“After years of mixed results, we will not and cannot provide a blank check,” Obama said. “Pakistan must demonstrate its commitment to rooting out Al-Qaeda and the violent extremists within its borders. And we will insist that action be taken, one way or another, when we have intelligence about high-level terrorist targets.”
The remark appeared to be one of the most pointed threats of US unilateral military action inside Pakistan since early in the Obama presidential campaign.
But Obama administration officials labored to explain exactly how they expect to persuade Pakistan to take a different course.
Asked in a television interview what part of the new plan might make Pakistan go after insurgents more aggressively, Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, the US military commander in the region, talked of building trust but listed no specifics. “What we need to do is, again, partner together effectively, confident that we are going to be there for each other in the future,” Petraeus said.
A central component of the Obama plan is legislation, introduced by Sens. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., and John Kerry, D-Mass., that would triple US civilian aid to Pakistan.
The measure calls for that aid to be released only after the US State Department has certified that Pakistan has made “concerted efforts” to prevent Al-Qaeda and associated terrorist groups from operating inside the country.
