WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama said he is boosting US forces in Afghanistan and increasing aid to Pakistan to “disrupt, dismantle and defeat” al-Qaeda terrorists and other militants in both countries.
“Multiple intelligence estimates have warned that al-Qaeda is actively planning attacks on the U.S. homeland from its safe haven in Pakistan,” Obama said. “Make no mistake: al-Qaeda and its extremist allies are a cancer that risks killing Pakistan from within.”
Obama said he’d support legislation to increase economic and development aid to Pakistan to about $1.5 billion annually for five years in exchange for that country cracking down on militants.
Obama said Afghanistan has for six years been denied needed resources because of the war in Iraq.
“Now, that will change,” Obama said. “For the first time, this will fully resource our effort to train and support the Afghan army and police.”
Obama called the situation in the region “an international security challenge of the highest order.”
“None of the steps that I have outlined will be easy, and none should be taken by America alone,” Obama said.
To ensure that Afghanistan upholds its pledges, Obama said the U.S. will forge a new compact with the nation and insist on a crackdown on corruption. The administration also will set out benchmarks to measure the strategy’s progress.
Obama’s civilian and military aides began outlining the new strategy for members of Congress yesterday.
US President ordered 4,000 more military troops into Afghanistan.
In a war that still has no end in sight, Obama said the fresh infusion of U.S. forces is designed to bolster the Afghan army and turn up the heat on terrorists that he said are plotting new attacks against Americans.
Obama called the situation in the region "increasingly perilous" more than seven years after the Taliban was removed from power in Afghanistan.
"If the Afghanistan government falls to the Taliban or allows al-Qaida to go unchallenged," Obama said, "that country will again be a base for terrorists."
He announced the troop deployment, as well as plans to send hundreds of additional civilians to Afghanistan, with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Defense Secretary Robert Gates and top intelligence and national security figures at his side. The announcement followed a policy review Obama launched not long after taking the oath of office.
The 4,000 troops come not long after the new administration approved the dispatch of an additional 17,000 forces to the war-weary nation.
Obama bluntly warned that the al-Qaida terrorists who masterminded the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks were actively planning further attacks on the United States from safe havens in Pakistan. And he said the Afghanistan government is in peril of falling to the Islamic militants of the Taliban once again.
"So I want the American people to understand that we have a clear and focused goal: to disrupt, dismantle, and defeat al-Qaida in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and to prevent their return to either country in the future," the president said.
"That is the goal that must be achieved," Obama added. "That is a cause that could not be more just. And to the terrorists who oppose us, my message is the same: we will defeat you."
Obama's plan will put more U.S. troops and money on the line. He said Pakistan and Afghanistan will be held to account, using benchmarks for progress.
Obama called the mountainous border region of Afghanistan and Pakistan "the most dangerous place in the world."
"This is not simply an American problem — far from it," Obama said. "It is, instead, an international security challenge of the highest order. Terrorist attacks in London and Bali were tied to al-Qaida and its allies in Pakistan, as were attacks in North Africa and the Middle East, in Islamabad and Kabul. If there is a major attack on an Asian, European, or African city, it, too, is likely to have ties to al-Qaida's leadership in Pakistan."
The president added: "The safety of people around the world is at stake."
He said he is sending in the 4,000 military trainers after military commanders watched their demand for such help go unmet for years.
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