WASHINGTON: Al Qaeda is trying to “bring down” nuclear-armed Pakistan, US Vice President Joe Biden warned on Sunday, days after a war review tip-toed around Islamabad’s role in fighting extremists.
“Our overarching goal and our rationale for being there is to dismantle, ultimately defeat Al Qaeda… to make sure that terrorists do not, in fact, bring down the Pakistani government, which is a nuclear power,” Biden said.
The vice-president, in an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press” programme, repeated threads of a one-year report on the US military surge in Afghanistan that pointed to progress but warned that more time was needed. Biden measured success against Al Qaeda by noting it had been restricted to efforts like the botched underwear attack on a US-bound jetliner last Christmas and a failed amateurish bombing in New York’s Times Square in May.
“They are planning much smaller bore but yet deadly attempts to go after the United States of America.
We saw that in the underpants bomber last Christmas. We saw that in the Times Square effort. We have significantly degraded and knocked off a lot of the main planners and organisers and trainers. Does that mean we’ve succeeded? No. Does that mean we’re in much better shape than we were a year ago and two and three? Yes.”
