Obama AFPAK strategy has potential to backfire, says US Senator

New York, Apr.1 (ANI): US President Obama's strategy review for Afghanistan and Pakistan, unveiled last week, finally focuses the government's attention and resources where they are most needed, says an editorial in the New York Times.

According to Wisconsin Senator Russ Feingold, after years, the president has recognized that the key to US national security is defeating Al Qaeda, and that to do so we must address both Pakistan and Afghanistan.

He, however, warns that Obama's strategy has the potential to escalate rather than diminish the Al Qaeda threat.

"While the Obama administration's plan and rhetoric recognize the vital need to confront this threat, the decision to send 21,000 additional troops to Afghanistan before fully confronting the terrorist safe havens and instability in Pakistan could very well prove counterproductive," Feingold says.

Increased military engagement against the Taliban in Afghanistan could push it further into Pakistan while aggravating the militant extremism that has spread to more and more parts of that country, he adds.New Taliban safe havens could emerge from which attacks in Afghanistan or Pakistan.lready weak government institutions could deteriorate further, undermining the legitimacy of the Pakistani state. And a country with nuclear weapons could be dangerously destabilized.(ANI)