US slammed for 'ducking' Al Qaeda problem in Pak

Slamming the Bush administration for 'ducking' the Al Qaeda problem in Pakistan 'for too long', a leading US newspaper has favoured US military action targeting the terrorist organisation even at the risk of further destabilising President Pervez Musharraf's regime.

'Such (military) actions run the risk of further destabilising Pakistan. Yet those risks must be weighed against the consequences of another large-scale attack on US soil', The Washington Post said in its lead editorial, titled Facing Al Qaeda: With the Terrorists Growing Stronger, their Sanctuaries in Pakistan Must Be Eliminated.

The Post said Pakistani forces may be too weak to break up the Al Qaeda 'sanctuary', and accused Musharraf of being preoccupied with preserving his own regime, which may make him accept a peace offer by the militants.

'... if there is one decision that seems most urgent in light of the intelligence reports, it is what to do about the Al Qaeda base in Pakistan', the paper said, adding 'The Bush administration has been ducking this critical problem for too long, despite the clear lesson of Afghanistan'.

Even though senior administration officials have publicly acknowledged since early this year that an Al Qaeda sanctuary exists in Pakistan, the administration has 'rigidly stuck to a strategy of depending on Pakistan's autocratic president, Gen Pervez Musharraf to take that disruptive action -- even while Mr Musharraf has pursued a contrary policy of appeasing the Pakistani tribesmen who are harbouring the Taliban and al Qaeda', the Post said.

The paper said claims by officials that Musharraf will soon resume military operations in the tribal areas after a 10-month suspension -- if only because the militants broke a truce last week and attacked government forces -- was no panacea as earlier operations by the Pakistani army failed.

'Government forces may be too weak to break up the sanctuary. Mr Musharraf himself is preoccupied with preserving his own regime. If the militants offer him a separate peace, he may well accept it', the paper said.

If Pakistani forces cannot -- or will not -- eliminate the sanctuary, President Bush must order targeted strikes or covert actions by American forces, as he has done several times in recent years, The Post said.

'Direct intervention against the sanctuary in Afghanistan apparently must have seemed ...disproportionate to the threat, the September 11 commission noted. The United States must not repeat that tragic misjudgment', The Post stressed.