Word: pakistan
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...follow-through has been a problem. Washington has yet to persuade Pakistan's military leadership of the need to take on what remains of the Mehsud network. While it continues to pound the area with air strikes, the Pakistan military is reluctant to mount a ground offensive in South Waziristan, citing the hazardous terrain. And in North Waziristan, Pakistan appears unwilling to confront the Haqqani network and other militants who mount cross-border attacks on U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan. Instead, it has focused on militants who challenge its own authority in Pakistan. (See pictures of the turmoil...
...Getting Pakistan to see both groups of militants - those who fight chiefly in Pakistan and those who fight chiefly in Afghanistan - as a common threat will test Obama's gifts of persuasion. The gap over perceptions and priorities could be narrowed with enhanced support for Pakistan's counterinsurgency capability. Organized to fight a different kind of war on a different border, the Pakistan Army is poorly equipped and trained for offensives against hardened guerillas, especially on terrain that favors the enemy's methods...
Still, when set against the doomsday scenarios being painted six months ago, when terrorist attacks frequently struck major cities and the Taliban had advanced to within 70 miles of Islamabad, Pakistan's offensive in the Swat Valley is cause for moderate optimism - and it has been a popular success. But, as fighting continues in pockets and key leaders remain at large, it remains to be seen whether Pakistan can hold on to territory and see through a reconstruction effort. (See pictures of refugees fleeing the Swat Valley...
...What Pakistan needs is enhanced support for communications, observation and helicopter fighting capability," says a Pakistani military official. Pakistan also covets night-vision goggles - a controversial demand given the risk that the militants could seize them through ambushes. In other areas, however, the Pakistan army has spurned counterinsurgency support. U.S. military experts are not allowed to directly train Pakistani troops engaged in counterinsurgency operations and are limited to training trainers...
...have improved over the past year through international assistance. An enhanced $11.3 billion International Monetary Fund rescue package has helped dampen inflation overall, but there is public outrage at wheat and sugar shortages. A further $5.5 billion is on the way through pledges made by the Friends of Democratic Pakistan, a consortium of allies, which will meet in New York next week with Obama, President Asif Ali Zardari and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown in attendance. In terms of metrics, achieving global consensus that Pakistan must be stabilized is an easy goal to reach. Making something of the consensus, however...