‘Pak addicted to anti-India terror use’-ToI- 30.3.12

Washington Helpless In Making Islamabad Junk Policy: Key Obama Aide

Washington: Pakistan is addicted to using terrorist groups against India and the policy is not going to change any time soon, a key Pentagon official told the US congress in a blunt and bleak assessment of the situation in the region. 
    At a hearing of the senate armed services sub-committee on emerging threats and capabilities, the Obama administration’s assistant secretary of defence for special ops/low-intensity conflict Michael Sheehan barely minced words on Tuesday in calling out Pakistan’s now widely-known policy of using terrorism as a policy tool. But what was astonishing was his candid admission about US helplessness in changing the Pakistani mindset. 
    “They have an addiction to playing around with militia groups to achieve certain interests, particularly vis-àvis India. That gets them into all kinds of trouble,” Sheehan told the panel. He then added, “We’ve had these conversations with them forever about that. I don’t see that changing. I don’t see any set of talking points that’s going to be delivered by some new diplomat that’s going to change their mind.” 
    Sheehan’s remarks came amid a significant thawing of ties between Pakistan’s civilian establishment and New Delhi. The official echoed president Obama’s view that Washington had little choice but to work with Islamabad despite its disquieting use of terrorism by the country’smilitary establishment, a policy New Delhi also appears to have embraced as it offers power supply to Pakistan. 
    Top US military generals have been meeting with Pakistani counterparts to get the relationship back on rails, and while there is some sign of thaw, Sheehan offered a bleak assessment of longterm relationship. He indicated the new parliamentary committee review of US-Pakistan relation, including a laundry list of demands on Washington, “are going to further complicate our ability to work with the Pakistani government”. 
    Obama too suggested as much as he asked Pakistan to keep US interests in mind even as he welcomed the review during his meeting with prime minister Gilani in seoul. “He’s very respectful of that process,” a senior Obama administration official said of the review while maintaining the US was also mindful of its “core interest” – of eliminating terrorism. 
    Obama himself was upfront about what he expected from Pakistan following his meeting with Gilani, saying “my expectation is, is that as a consequence of the review that’s in Pakistan as well as the work that we’re doing on the American side, we can achieve the kind of balanced approach that respects Pakistan’s sovereignty, but also it respects our concerns with respect to our national security and our needs to battle terrorists who have targeted us in the past”. At the same time, he did not commit himself to ending drone strikes, which Pakistan says violates its sovereignty.