Walking away from Pakistan not an option: Mitt Romney

Pakistan gained spotlight in the American presidential debate on foreign policy as Mitt Romney, President Obama’s rival in the November 6 election, ruled out the notion of US abandoning the key South Asian country over some lingering differences between the two countries.
Instead, the Republican candidate, who is tied with President Barack Obama in one of the closest presidential races in recent US history, spoke of rebuilding ties between the two countries and helping Pakistan gain political stability.
A prominent business leader and former Massachusetts governor, Romney also argued in the 90-minute debate with Obama that drones should be just one dimension of a broader US policy that helps other nations reject extremism.
“Pakistan is important to the region, to the world and to us, because Pakistan has 100 nuclear warheads and they’re rushing to build a lot more. They’ll have more than Great Britain sometime in the — in the relatively near future,” the GOP candidate stressed.
The debate projected Pakistan’s importance for a variety of reasons including its role towards Afghan stability, its geo-strategic location and nuclear status as the two political foes discussed security transition next door in Afghanistan and prospects for US forces’ withdrawal from the landlocked country in 2014.
Romney apprehended that due to a mix of factors including nuclear weapons, the presence of the Haqqani militants and the Taliban within Pakistan, if the country becomes a failed state, it would be of extraordinary danger.
Is it time for us to divorce Pakistan? Bob Schieffer, the CBS channel’s moderator of the debate, asked Romney.
“No, it’s not time to divorce a nation on Earth that has 100 nuclear weapons and is on the way to double that at some point, a nation that has serious threats from terrorist groups within its nation, as I indicated before, the Taliban, Haqqani network.”
“It’s a nation that’s not like — like others and it does not have a civilian leadership that is calling the shots there. You have the ISI, their intelligence organization, is probably the most powerful of the — of three branches there. Then you have the military and then you have the civilian government.
“This is a nation, which, if it falls apart, if it — if it becomes a failed state, there are nuclear weapons there and you’ve got — you’ve got terrorists there who could grab their — their hands onto those nuclear weapons,” he added.
“And so we’re going to have to remain helpful in encouraging Pakistan to move towards a more stable government and rebuild the relationship with us. And that means that our aid that we provide to Pakistan is going to have to be conditioned upon certain benchmarks being met,” the Republican challenger said of his policy toward Pakistan.
At the same time, Romney chose to back the politically popular decisions and tactics made by the Obama administration including the US special forces’ incursion into Pakistani territory last year that took out al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden from his Abbottabad hideout.
“This is an important part of the world for us. Pakistan is — is technically an ally, and they’re not acting very much like an ally right now. But we have some work to do. And I — I don’t blame the administration for the fact that the relationship with Pakistan is strained. We — we had to go into Pakistan. We had to go in there to get Osama bin Laden. That was the right thing to do. And — and that upset them, but obviously there was a great deal of anger even before that. But we’re going to have to work with the — with the people in Pakistan to try and help them move to a more responsible course than the one that they’re on. And it’s important for them. It’s important for the nuclear weapons. It’s important for the success of Afghanistan.”
In the course of discussion, Romney feared that the Pakistani Taliban would rush into Afghanistan when the US leaves the country.
“But it’s important for us to recognize that we can’t just walk away from Pakistan. But we do need to make sure that as we — as we send support for them, that this is tied to them making progress on — on matters that would lead them to becoming a civil society,” Romney underlined.
Asked pointedly on the use of drones in targeting suspected terrorists, Romney replied:
“I believe we should use any and all means necessary to take out people who pose a threat to us and our friends around the world. And it’s widely reported that drones are being used in drone strikes, and I support that and entirely, and feel the president was right to up the usage of that technology, and believe that we should continue to use it, to continue to go after the people that represent a threat to this nation and to our friends.”
But, concurrently, Romney noted emphatically “we’re going to have to do more than just going after leaders and — and killing bad guys, important as that is.”
“We’re also going to have to have a far more effective and comprehensive strategy to help move the world away from terror and Islamic extremism,” he added.
He criticized the Obama Administration for not making progress in this respect.
“We haven’t done that yet. We talk a lot about these things, but you look at the — the record, you look at the record. You look at the record of the last four years and say is Iran closer to a bomb? Yes. Is the Middle East in tumult? Yes. Is — is al-Qaida on the run, on its heels? No. Is — are Israel and the Palestinians closer to reaching a peace agreement?
“No, they haven’t had talks in two years. We have not seen the progress we need to have, and I’m convinced that with strong leadership and an effort to build a strategy based upon helping these nations reject extremism, we can see the kind of peace and prosperity the world demands.”
President Obama did not get a chance to speak much about Pakistan but he cited a series of foreign policy achievements on his watch, including weakening of al-Qaeda, elimination of Osama bin Laden and the end to Iraq war.
“We decimated Al Qaida’s core leadership in the border regions between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Obama said he had fulfilled his 2008 campaign commitment to take out Osama bin Laden even if it meant going into Pakistani territory unilaterally and criticized Romney’s earlier stance on the issue.
The US president went on to say “if we had asked Pakistan permission, we would not have gotten him (bin Laden). And it was worth moving heaven and earth to get him.”