Date: Thu, 28 Feb 2002 19:30:44 EST From: freemanaz@aol.com Subject: [azpeace] Cato Institute Foreign Policy Pieces To: azpeace@yahoogroups.com Reply-To: azpeace@yahoogroups.com
WHY IS PAKISTAN AN ALLY?
Pakistan's military government launched a fresh offensive against Islamic militants today as police detained 58 activists over a murderous attack on a Shi'ite mosque earlier this week, Reuters reports. ( http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20020228/ts_nm/attack_pakistan_dc_2&cid=578 )
But in a sign that the government is worried about a backlash from such groups, officials said it would not immediately agree to a U.S. request to extradite the suspected mastermind in the kidnapping of a murdered U.S. reporter. Washington has asked Pakistan to hand over British-born radical Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, currently detained in the southern port city of Karachi for his suspected role in the abduction of Daniel Pearl, who was later murdered.
President Pervez Musharraf is engaged in a tough balancing act as he tries to rein in Islamic extremists opposed to his support for the U.S. war in Afghanistan, without sparking a wider backlash in his volatile nation.
In "If Iraq, Iran, and North Korea Are the 'Axis of Evil,' Why Is Pakistan an Ally?"( http://www.cato.org/dailys/02-28-02.html ) research fellow Leon Hadar says that Pakistan's government, led by an unreliable military clique that is assisting radical Islamic terrorist groups in Kashmir, pressing for a war with India, and presiding over a corrupt and mismanaged economy, has been a recipient of vast sums of U.S. military and financial aid. "One should recall that it was America's 'friend' Pakistan that, through its military-religious nexus, led by its infamous intelligence services, provided the Taliban fighters with the military aid that helped bring them to power in Kabul in 1994 and create the anti-American terrorist state of Afghanistan."
WAR ON TERROR EXPANDS AGAIN
American forces are hunting terrorists in Afghanistan, dispensing advice in the Philippines and pondering counterterror programs in Yemen, Indonesia, Georgia and beyond, the Associated Press reports. ( http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20020228/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/t
error_war_3&cid=533 )
"So long as there's al Qaeda anywhere, we will help the host countries root them out," President Bush said Wednesday. There probably will not be one place tackled next, but rather a number of them, said Gen. Tommy Franks, commander of the war in Afghanistan. Franks said he expects to recommend that the U.S. military help train Yemeni forces to pursue al Qaeda and other terrorists. Simultaneous battles against terrorists are likely at various places around the globe, with different approaches tailored to different nations, he told a House committee.
In "War Against Terror Expands Excessively,"( http://www.cato.org/dailys/02-08-02.html ) Director of Defense Policy Studies Ivan Eland argues that, "A perpetual state of war--as the president seems to envision when he asserted that the war may run beyond the duration of his term--could undermine economic recovery, does not comport with the values of a republic, and will likely lead to the erosion of constitutional liberties and the accumulation of too much power in the executive branch."
In "Turn The War on Terrorism Into a War By Proxy,"( http://www.cato.org/current/terrorism/pubs/eland-020123b.html ) Eland writes, "Although any al Qaeda cells in [other] nations need to be targeted, it does not necessarily need to be by direct U.S. military action. As in Afghanistan, the U.S. military 'footprint' should be minimized. That minimalist strategy would avoid generating more retaliatory radical Islamic terrorism than it would exterminate."
Jerry Brito, editor, jbrito@cato.org
In today's Daily Commentary: If Iraq, Iran, and North Korea Are the "Axis of Evil," Why Is Pakistan an Ally? by Leon Hadar http://www.cato.org/dailys/02-28-02.html