US won't hunt militants over Pakistan border: Obama

[Guest guest]

Now that the militants know that, they can flee Afghanistan and run into

Pakistan.

Perhaps the only thing that would have made it easier for these people to escape

us would be us providing their transportation.

Administrator

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US won't hunt militants over Pakistan border: Obama

1 day ago

WASHINGTON (AFP) — President Barack Obama ruled out sending US troops on a hot

pursuit of extremists across the Afghan border into Pakistan -- but demanded

Islamabad hold up its end of the anti-terror struggle.

Referring to US missile strikes on militants, Obama said in a television

interview: " If we have a high-value target within our sights, after consulting

with Pakistan, we're going after them. "

But asked on CBS program " Face the Nation " if he would order US troops on the

ground into militant safe havens inside Pakistan, Obama stressed: " No.

" Our plan does not change the recognition of Pakistan as a sovereign

government, " he said. " We need to work with them and through them to deal with

Al-Qaeda. But we have to hold them much more accountable. "

Obama on Friday put Pakistan at the center of the fight against Al-Qaeda as part

of a new strategy dispatching 4,000 more troops, in addition to an extra 17,000

already committed, and billions of dollars to the Afghan war.

Asked if this was now his personal war, Obama said: " I think it's America's

war. "

" And the focus over the last seven years I think has been lost. What we want to

do is to refocus attention on Al-Qaeda, " he said in a reference to predecessor

W. Bush's diversion of resources to Iraq.

" We are going to root out their networks, their bases. We are going to make sure

that they cannot attack US citizens, US soil, US interests, and our allies'

interests around the world. "

With Pakistan subject to a renewed US focus, Defense Secretary Gates

urged its powerful intelligence service to cut contacts with extremists in

Afghanistan, which he called an " existential threat " to Pakistan itself.

Pakistan's Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence has had links with

extremists " for a long time, as a hedge against what might happen in Afghanistan

if we were to walk away or whatever, " he said on " Fox News Sunday. "

" They can count on us and they don't need that hedge, " Gates said, citing the

ISI's links specifically to the Al-Qaeda-linked Haqqani militant network and to

the forces of Afghan warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar.

Obama said reports of ISI links to Afghan extremists " aren't new, " and attacked

the notion " among the average Pakistani that this is somehow America's war and

that they are not invested. "

" And that attitude I think has led to a steady creep of extremism in Pakistan

that is the greatest threat to the stability of the Pakistan government, and

ultimately the greatest threat to the Pakistani people. "

Obama said his planned tripling of US aid for Pakistan would strengthen the

nuclear-armed nation's economy and basic services, and so erode support for

terrorism.

Ahead of an international meeting on Afghanistan in The Netherlands on Monday,

he added the new US strategy " doesn't just rely on bullets or bombs but also

relies on agricultural specialists, on doctors, on engineers. "

Development work in both Afghanistan and Pakistan would encourage people to see

" they have much more at stake in partnering with us and the international

community, than (in) giving in to some of these extremist ideologies. "

Gates was asked about a weekend New York Times report that US military

commanders had pressed Obama for even more troops for Afghanistan.

" The president has approved every single soldier that I have requested of him, "

the Pentagon chief said, in remarks echoed on CNN by General Petraeus, the

head of US Central Command.

" And the reality is there already are a lot of troops there, " Gates added. " This

will bring us, when all is said and done, to 68,000 troops plus another 35,000

or so Europeans and other partners. "

Republican Senator McCain, Obama's defeated opponent for the White House,

said " the outlines of this proposal are good " but that he would have sent more

new troops, in the order of 10,000.

His own message to the US public would be that " it's going to be long and hard

and tough, " McCain said on NBC's " Meet the Press. "

Copyright © 2009 AFP.