AfGoNowistan -

AF_GONOW_istan - Policy

There is no denial of US losing war in Afghanistan, but a long awaited US-Afghan policy is finally out. Obama didn't have much options. He could either amplify troops on ground, or make sure safe withdrawal of troops. For now, he took a very calculated central position.

President Obama's speech Tuesday night may have focused on his decision to send 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan, but infusing almost every paragraph was the administration's even deeper concern about Pakistan.

“We will act with the full recognition that our success in Afghanistan is inextricably linked to our partnership with Pakistan,” Obama told cadets at the US military academy at West Point.

In a speech televised live nationwide, Obama billed the “effective partnership” with Pakistan as one of the three “core elements” for defeating extremism, along with an increase in both troops and civilians.

US President Barack Obama’s new strategy for Afghanistan must ensure that there is “no adverse fallout” on Pakistan, the Foreign Office said on Wednesday. “Pakistan has taken careful note of the important announcement by President Obama on the Afghanistan strategy,” said Foreign Office spokesman Abdul Basit. Basit said Pakistan looked forward to engaging closely with the US in understanding the full importance of the new strategy.

The Afghan Taliban said on Wednesday President Barack Obama’s plan to send more troops to the country would only strengthen their resolve.

“Many more troops the enemy sends against our Afghan mujahideen, they are committed to increasing the number of mujahideen and strengthen their resistance,” the Taliban said in a statement e-mailed to media.

Mr. Obama spoke of the two countries' long and rugged border region as the "epicenter of the violent extremism practiced by Al Qaeda" that continues to threaten the US. He went further, saying that the dangers in allowing the region to "slide backwards" into becoming a haven for extremists "are even greater with a nuclear-armed Pakistan."

But so far, Pakistan's civilian and military leaders have been reluctant to OK the increased US intelligence presence and operations, Pakistani sources say.

The civilian government of President Asif Ali Zardari is teetering and could fall soon, they say, while the military – which is "always the real power base" – is "completely cynical about the United States."

And public opinion is no better. A surge of anti-Americanism greeted US congressional approval earlier this fall of a new $7.5 billion civilian aid program for Pakistan.