World's most dangerous country Pak 'a lost cause', says top US military adviser

Washington, Jun.4 (ANI): A key adviser to the US Central Command chief General David Petraeus, Lieutenant Colonel David Kilcullen has said that Pakistan is a 'lost cause', and until it initiates wholesale changes, the prevailing lawlessness in the country would amplify.

"I think it's lost (Pakistan). We still have enormous support in some ways in Pakistan that the population is very much oppose to militancy in the main. But I do think we do need to see a fairly wholesale change of heart coming from the Pakistani military before we're likely to see much difference on the ground," Lt. Col. Kilcullen said.

Terming Pakistan as the 'most dangerous country' in the world, Lt. Col. Kilcullen, a former theorist of asymmetrical warfare in the Australian Army, said it has become the center of terrorism in the world, and this has certainly worried the policy makers across the globe.

"I think it's not exaggeration to say that Pakistan is the most dangerous country in the world today. In certainly in terms of counter-terrorism and counter-insurgency problems, it is the problem that most worries me and I think that should most worry Western policy-makers," The Nation quoted Lt. Col. Kilcullen, as saying.

Referring to Pakistan's nuclear capability, he said it has at least 100 nuclear weapons, and danger of loosing them to the extremists looms large.

"The government is progressively losing control of its own population and territory. And you've got Al-Qaeda sitting right in the middle of the country so it's a very, very significant problem," he said.

Lt. Col. Kilcullen also highlighted that Pakistan premier intelligence agency, the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI), has close relations with certain extremist groups, and it has been utilizing them to counter India's extensive influence in the region.

He added that despite the existential threat that the Taliban and other militant organizations poses, most members of Pakistan's national security establishment still consider India a potent threat.

"I think that the ISI has a history of using militant extremist organisations as an unconventional counterweight to Indian regional influence and most members of the Pakistani national security establishment tend to regard the real threat to Pakistan as India, not extremist militancy," Kilcullen said. (ANI)