NEW YORK: Pakistan must be central to U.S. policy on Afghanistan and needs up to $50 billion over the next five years to avoid an economic meltdown that risks turning the country over to Islamic extremists, said a report released. The report by a think tank with close ties to the Obama administration said Washington must also act to strengthen civilian government in Pakistan and persuade Islamabad to stop using militant groups as an instrument of foreign policy.The Asia Society, whose chairman was Richard Holbrooke until he was appointed U.S. special envoy on Afghanistan and Pakistan in January, convened a task force to compile the report: "Back from the Brink? A Strategy for Stabilizing Afghanistan-Pakistan." The report, made public on Thursday, was provided to President Barack Obama's administration before he unveiled his strategy on Afghanistan last week. It closely mirrors Obama's policy, while focusing more on politics than military issues. The report said the global economic crisis risked further weakening Pakistan's civilian government, which has little control over tribal areas that have become safe havens for al Qaeda, and which struggles to match the sway of the military."Perhaps the most urgent priority is to prevent economic collapse, which could undermine state authority even in major urban areas in the next few months," the report said.
BAGHDAD: Nearly 500 U.S. Army combat engineers who specialize in clearing roads of explosives started shifting to southern Afghanistan."We are probably going to be the beginning of the influx you are going to see to Afghanistan," Lt. Col. Kevin Landers, commander of the Fort Carson, Colo.-based 4th Engineer Battalion, said as crews packed crates and cleaned vehicles for the flight to Kandahar.Obama has ordered 17,000 more U.S. soldiers and Marines to Afghanistan to bolster the 38,000 American troops already battling the resurgent Taliban."We are going to take this footprint out of Iraq," said Landers, whose battalion received word of its reassignment last month just after taking command of clearing roads in Baghdad of bombs and debris.
Comments