US warnings about Pak collapse adding to panic: WP

Washington, Apr.27 (ANI): While concerns were raised across the world about the Taliban gaining ground in Pakistan and arriving on the door steps of Islamabad, the sudden reaction by the United States and the open warning about Pakistan's democratic set-up caving-in to the hands of the extremists has only added to the panic in the region, says an article in the Washington Post.

"In the course of just three days, the U.S. Secretaries of State and Defense, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, and the commanding general of American forces in the Middle East have all publicly warned, in blunt and dire language, that Pakistan is facing an existential threat, and that its government and Army are not facing it," the newspaper said.

It said that the Obama Administration was compelled to react in the manner it did shows that a certain amount of desperation is creeping into Washington about Pakistan's weak government and imperceptive military leadership.

The report said that a majority of Pakistanis are against Taliban fundamentalism, but they equally dislike the President Zardari's regime. People of the country feel that any military offensive against the extremists serve U.S. interests more Pakistan's.

It further adds that despite serious 'existential threat internally, the military of the country is pre-occupied with its arc rival India.

"The Pakistani army, untrained in counterinsurgency and rigidly focused on India, is reluctant to take on the militants; when it has tried to fight them in areas near the Afghan border, it has been mostly ineffective," the report added.

If Pakistan really wants to put an end to this unending headache, it would have to embrace the fight against the Taliban as its own, and not as a proxy war for the United States.

The fact is that the United States is also bounded by certain factors and is unable to directly take on the attack on the insurgents apart from intensifying drone strikes inside Pakistan's territory. But it also has certain advantages.

Without the billons of dollars of US aid Pakistan's economy would collapse. This would perhaps spur the country's political class into demanding action from the army and government or even demand a change in the regime.

The article warns that the US must be careful in pressing the panic button,"shouts of 'fire' have risks: They can also cause panic, or go unheeded," the report concluded. (ANI)