The New York Times reports today that the Bush White House has decided that it’s finally time to get tough with Pakistan when it comes to terrorism. That’s probably a good idea — last week we learned that senior leaders of al Qaeda are operating from Pakistan, have rebuilt training camps, and have “re-established significant control over their once-battered worldwide terror network.”
What strikes me as interesting, however, is how the president is choosing to pressure Pakistan — by using a Democratic Congress as leverage.
Vice President Dick Cheney made an unannounced trip to Pakistan on Monday to deliver what officials in Washington described as an unusually tough message Gen. Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan, warning him that the newly Democratic Congress could cut aid to his country unless his forces become far more aggressive in hunting down operatives with Al Qaeda. […]
Congressional Democrats have threatened to review military assistance and other aid to Pakistan unless they see evidence of aggressive attacks on Al Qaeda. The House last month passed a measure linking future military aid to White House certification that Pakistan “is making all possible efforts to prevent the Taliban from operating in areas under its sovereign control.”
Pakistan is now the fifth-largest recipient of American aid. Mr. Bush has proposed $785 million in aid to Pakistan in his new budget, including $300 million in military aid to help Pakistan combat Islamic radicalism in the country. The rumblings from Congress give Mr. Bush and his top advisers a way of conveying the seriousness of the problem, officials said, without appearing to issue a direct threat to the proud Pakistani leader themselves.
“We think the Pakistani aid is at risk in Congress,” said the senior official, who declined to speak on the record because the subject involved intelligence matters.
I don’t disagree with the strategy, but let’s be clear about the president’s message here: he’s not all that concerned about Pakistan aiding al Qaeda, but congressional Democrats take counter-terrorism seriously — and they’re unwilling to send aid to a country that won’t crack down on the terrorist network responsible for 9/11.
Fascinating.
For years, Pakistan, ostensibly a U.S. ally, has been looking the other way on terrorists as a means of survival. Bush said nothing, except to praise Pakistan as a democracy and ally. The Republican-led Congress said nothing, because they didn’t want to bother Bush.
But now there’s a real Congress, which places counter-terrorism above the president’s political standing, and which is none too pleased about Pakistan playing a role in allowing al Qaeda to regain strength.
Bush, instead of stepping up and showing some leadership years ago, now tells Pakistan, “You better to do something; those mean Democrats are liable to take drastic measures.”
What’s more, this is the second time in as many weeks that the Bush gang has played the “good cop” to the Dems’ “bad cop” when it comes to the Middle East.
[I]n her recent trip to Iraq, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice used the debate as part of a diplomatic strategy to urge Iraqi political leaders to accelerate their efforts to produce results on the economic and security conditions in Iraq. The NY Times reported:
“Ms. Rice said she used the restiveness in Washington to underline for Iraqi officials the spread of American frustration with Iraq’s lagging political and economic progress.
“She said she had ‘made clear that some of the debate in Washington is, in fact, indicative of the concerns that the American people have about the prospects for success’ if Iraq’s leaders did not quickly take actions to ensure longer-term stability.”
Iraqi leaders took note. Hoshyar Zebari, Iraq’s foreign minister, said Rice “emphasized a great deal the issue of urgency.” Rice stressed to Iraqi leaders that “patience is not unlimited in the United States and that there’s a great deal of frustration,” Zebari added.
So, when it comes to domestic rhetoric, the Bush gang insists that Dems are not only weak, they’re “emboldening” the enemy. When it comes to actual foreign policy, the same Bush gang believes Dems are strong and are aggressively challenging the enemy.
Good to know.