Clinton in Pakistan, Amid Explosion
28 October 2009 7:30 am by Taylor Marsh
–updated–
Trying to reiterate broader support for what the Pakistanis are doing in South Waziristan, Clinton is doing diplomacy at a moment when things are very difficult in the region, with a car bomb exploding killing more than 80 people, according to early reports.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton arrived in Pakistan on Wednesday for a three-day visit aimed at quelling rising anti-Americanism and convincing Pakistanis that the United States wants a relationship based on more than counterterrorism. … Although the fight against al-Qaeda and the Taliban in Pakistan and Afghanistan “remains our highest priority,” Clinton told reporters aboard the flight to Islamabad, the United States will move beyond a “lopsided” U.S.-Pakistan relationship weighted toward the “security and the counterterrorism agenda.” – Clinton visits Pakistan in bid to improve ties
Another report, also from the Washington Post, tells of hundreds of thousands of Pakistanis displaced by the army’s offensive, now over two weeks old.
“They will only rise against the Taliban when they are convinced the government means business,” said Saifullah Mehsud, director of the FATA Research Center in Islamabad, which studies Pakistan’s tribal areas. “But they have never been convinced.”
Militancy’s iron grip
For half a dozen years, a stew of Pakistani and foreign militants has exerted near-complete control in the region. Bearded fighters travel ridges in convoys, local commanders police villages, and the rank and file put up posters pronouncing the latest religious edicts.
