McCain says Obama administration antagonising Pakistan

By
Hussain
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6
166

Republican Senator John McCain has accused the Obama administration of needlessly damaging the US relationship with Pakistan and “antagonizing Pakistanis” with an “in your
face attitude”.
In an interview on Thursday with the PBS channel’s program News Hour, McCain said the administration’s encouragement of India taking a more active role in Afghanistan while simultaneously criticizing Pakistan could be a recipe for disaster.
“To further antagonize Pakistan unnecessarily is not something I would particularly think is appropriate,” said the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee. “It’s a very delicate situation, one in which I would be very careful what we say publicly,” the former presidential candidate said but also alleged that Pakistanis “are supporting organizations that are killing Americans”.
Islamabad has rejected such allegations. McCain said he would have nurtured relations with India the way the US has been doing for years. “I would have nurtured this relationship with India sort of the way we have been for years, rather than sort of antagonizing the Pakistanis even more with this kind of in your face attitude,” he said. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta told reporters in Afghanistan last week that the United States was “reaching the limits of our patience” with Pakistan, which he alleged was providing a “safe haven” for the Haqqani network and other groups that launch attacks on US forces.
A day before these remarks, Panetta stopped in New Delhi, where he encouraged the Indian government to take a “more active role” in training police and other reconstruction projects in Afghanistan.
McCain said that he has long supported a close relationship with India, but that he would “do it more quietly…(India) will be a very important ally to us in the future. And they are a democracy.” McCain told the channel that while the Pakistanis often acted counter to US interests, it “doesn’t mean that we also cut off all relations with Pakistan because then it could become even more unstable and we could have even greater challenges since they have a nuclear inventory, among other things.”

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6 COMMENTS

  1. This definitely a failure of US foreign policy. The first and the most costly mistake was to appoint an envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan and exclude India. The second mistake is allowing Leon Pannetta to handle more than he is capacitatious to do. I am afraid US has learnt little from its mistakes.

    • "… costly mistake was to appoint an envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan and exclude India…".
      .
      Explain …
      .

      • In the beginning India was included but the Indian government declined to accept the US proposal.

  2. This is most definitely a failure of US foreign policy. The first and the most costly mistake was to appoint an envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan and exclude India. The second mistake is allowing Leon Pannetta to handle more than he is capacitatious to do. I am afraid US has learnt little from its mistakes.

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