Author: Press Trust Of India
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: September 5, 2008
URL: http://www.indianexpress.com/story/357963.html
Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama
has said that Pakistan is using US aid meant for the war on terror to "prepare
for a war against India". He will hold Islamabad accountable for these
massive funds and increase pressure to bust terrorist safe havens if he becomes
President, Obama said on Fox News.
"What we can do is stay focused on Afghanistan
and put more pressure on the Pakistanis," Obama said, adding the US was
providing Pakistan military aid "without having enough strings attached".
"So they're using the military aid...
Pakistan... They're preparing for a war against India.
"What we say is, look, we're going to
provide them with additional military support, targeted at terrorists, and
we're going to help build their democracy.... We've wasted 10 billion dollars
with Musharraf without holding them accountable for knocking out those safe
havens."
Obama said he would follow Osama bin Laden
to the "gates of hell" - and though "nobody talked about some
full-blown invasion of Pakistan, we've got to put more pressure on Pakistan
to do what they need to do."
Obama has consistently held a tough line on
Pakistan. In August 2007, he had kicked up a storm by advocating anti-al Qaeda
strikes inside Pakistan, even without Islamabad's consent. "If we have
actionable intelligence about high-value terrorist targets and President Musharraf
won't act, we will," he had said.
Obama had argued that by waging war in Iraq
and not going after the terrorists in Pakistan and Afghanistan, President
George W. Bush was "confusing" the mission against terror. "The
first step must be getting off the wrong battlefield in Iraq, and taking the
fight to the terrorists in Afghanistan and Pakistan," he had said.
