US military chief Admiral Mike Mullen on Thursday said Pakistan needed space to sort out internal problems and that it would be dangerous for the US to abandon the troubled war partner. Mullen said Pakistan had been going through “a great deal of introspection” in the month since US forces killed Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad.
“I think we need to give them a little time and space to do that. And that makes all the sense in the world to me,” Mullen told a breakfast with reporters. “I think the worst thing we could do would be cut them off,” he said.
If the US distanced itself from Pakistan, “10 years from now, 20 years from now, we go back and it’s much more intense and it’s much more dangerous”, he said. “We’re just not living in a world where we can afford to be unengaged in a place like this,” he said.
A number of US lawmakers have called into question the billions of dollars in assistance to Pakistan, accusing the country of playing a double game of seeking foreign money while keeping ties to extremists.
Dangerous to abandon Pakistan: Mullen
