In House testimony, Clinton asks for patience on Afghanistan, Pakistan

[alp227]

Source: Wash. Post

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton appealed to skeptical lawmakers for patience and support Thursday as the administration tries to mend a deep rift with Pakistan, encourage negotiations with U.S. enemies and prepare for the promised withdrawal of all American combat forces from Afghanistan by 2014.

“I will be the first to admit that working with our Afghan and Pakistani partners is not always easy,” Clinton told the House Foreign Affairs Committee. “But these relationships are advancing America’s national security interests, and walking away from them would undermine those interests.”

Despite what it sees as significant recent successes against al-Qaeda and refinements in its strategy leading to an eventual end of the Afghanistan conflict, the administration faces growing public and congressional doubts about whether the war is winnable and flagging interest in spending more money and lives on it.

Clinton spoke positively of what she called a “fight, talk, build” strategy in which intensified military strikes will “squeeze” Pakistan-based militants toward the negotiating table. During a visit last week to Pakistan, she said, she had “detailed and frank conversations” and that a page had been turned after relations deteriorated in the wake of public U.S. accusations of Pakistani support for the militants.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/in-house-testimony-clinton-asks-for-patience-on-afghanistan-pakistan/2011/10/27/gIQADrmHNM_story.html

[LuckyLib]

1. Pakistan is a wreck. Between corruption, the military vs. civilian government,

and rogue bands of independent crazies, the place is nuts. And, somewhere in all of it, are nuclear weapons. We should be worried.

[Stumbler]

2. Patience? Really?

It's time for us to just rip off the Band-aid that is our occupation of Afghanistan. Yes, blood will flow, but it will coagulate into a scab that no longer relies on billions of dollars of American intervention in the form of tax-payer funded, privately profitable military operations, not to mention the tight-rope walking of our state department attempting to present the issue of America being on 'everyone's side.' I know this is far more easier said than done, but dammit, for the sake of preventing America from falling further into decline, we must reign in our military misadventures, beginning in Afghanistan and then addressing the hundreds of military bases around the world...