WASHINGTON: US Senator John Kerry, who returned from a visit to Islamabad earlier this week, has said that the Obama administration does not seem to have ‘a real strategy’ for Pakistan.
In an interview to USA Today, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee said the Obama administration's plan for that volatile country, rolled out last month with great fanfare, ‘is not a real strategy.’
‘Pakistan is in a moment of peril. ... And I believe there is not in place yet an adequate policy or plan to deal with it,’ he said.
Senator Kerry's comments amounted to one of the most serious criticisms leveled by a Democrat at President Obama on foreign policy.
The newspaper noted that Senator Kerry's remarks were a change from his initial reaction to Obama's announcement of his plan for the region in a speech March 27, when Mr Kerry issued a statement calling it ‘realistic and bold.’
‘Obviously the president disagrees with the chairman on this, and the issues he raised are being aggressively worked in the president's new strategy,’ White House spokesman Tommy Vietor said in an e-mail to USA Today.
The senator advised the Obama administration to stop using the term ‘Af-Pak,’ to describe a unified strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, because ‘I think it does a disservice to both countries and to the policy. The two governments, he said, are ‘very sensitive to it’ and ‘don't see the linkage.’
Senator Kerry's spokesman, Frederick Jones, told reporters that the presidents of Pakistan and Afghanistan are scheduled to embark on a rare joint visit to the US for meetings in May, and Mr Kerry plans to host them for lunch on May 7.
As an example of how he believes counterinsurgency strategy is lacking, Senator Kerry cited the example of a recent Pakistan army operation in Peshawar.
‘The army went in, they expended a lot of energy for us, some lives, and you know, nothing came in underneath it — absolutely nothing. So you're going to wind up with a bunch of folks who are going to hate you.’
‘If the army's going to take the risk of going in there, for God's sake you have the civil component coming in, so you win something for it,’ Mr Kerry said.
The Massachusetts senator has sponsored a bill that would steer $1.5 billion a year in aid to Pakistan. He said he opposes language in a companion bill in the House requiring the president to certify that Pakistan does not support terrorists. Pakistanis consider that ‘insulting,’ he said.
Late, Senator Kerry called a USA Today reporter to clarify his comments, saying he did not mean to criticize President Obama. ‘I was not blasting the president,’ he said. ‘What I'm saying is that the details have not been fleshed out. We're working hand in hand on it.’
Senator Kerry praised President Obama's stepped-up attacks against insurgents in Pakistan by unmanned US drone aircraft, saying they had driven ‘bad guys’ into Yemen.
‘I think it has had a dramatic impact, and I think that is one of the reasons why people are screaming about it,’ he said, adding that he did not think there have been inordinate civilian casualties.
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