Former United States deputy secretary of defence and strategic affairs expert, John Hamre, on Tuesday said Pakistan posed a bigger threat to the US than Iraq as there are radical elements inside President Pervez Musharraf's government who are trying to remove him.
"Having radical forces like the Taliban access to the nuclear weapons is a very worrisome prospect and, in my view, far more immediate a problem than is the problem in Iraq," John Hamre said in the Conferderation of Indian Industry's Ninth Partnership Summit in Hyderabad.
Speaking at a session on "Military Strategy: Fighting the Unseen Enemy", Hamre, president and CEO of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, underlined the threat that Pakistani president was facing.
He said Musharraf has survived at least six assassination attempts by the hostile elements so far. "If the radical elements too become part of a government, they would pose a very serious risk to US as well as to India," he warned.
"I won't minimise the problem in Iraq, but if the war with Iraq leads to destabilisation in Pakistan, we will have created a very dangerous environment. Therein lies the dilemma all of us face," he said, adding, it was in the interest of the US and India to work constructively to build a more competent government in Islamabad so that that can fight against radical elements.
"We are not going to solve the problem confronting us by having an incompetent government in Islamabad that deteriorates over time," he quipped, pointing out that both US and India need to insist that Pakistan should not harbor terrorists.
