Pak military is fundamentalist: US leader

Pakistan's military over the years has become more inclined towards "Islamic fundamentalist view", which should be a deep cause of concern for the US, a top Republican leader has said.

Blaming the cut off of all education and training by US Congress over a long period for this, Newt Gingrich said, "the Pakistan military has gotten harder and harder and more inclined towards Islamic fundamentalist view which is very dangerous from our standpoint."

In an interview to a news channel, former Speaker of House of Representatives Gingrich said, the problem in western parts of Pakistan is more complicated and worse than being perceived by the Obama Administration.

He proposed construction of network of roads and highways in this part of Pakistan as a long-term solution to the problem.

"You could have Pakistan become an enormous problem almost overnight because they already have nuclear weapons, whereas Iran is trying to get them. What we would need for them to do is control the Northwest Territories," he said.

"I think there is almost no possibility that they're going to do that, and that poses a real crisis for American policy. And this is not President Obama's fault," he said.

"The fact is northwest Pakistan and the management of the Pashtun region is a much, much bigger problem than any American politician has been willing to confront."

Coming out with his own highway solution to the Af-Pak problem the former Speaker said: "The number one thing we have to do is have a highway solution for northwest Pakistan and Afghanistan.
The more paved roads you build, the more open the countries become, the greater the possibility you're going to gradually wear out the guerrillas, and you're going to help grow things that are useful."

Secondly, he argued: "I'd do is find a way, even if you had to invest a fairly good bit of money, to wean the Afghan farmers off of growing poppies and converting it into heroin and instead wean them into productive work.

That's another reason you need the road network." It's vital to find a way to build lots and lots of roads in northwest Pakistan because it will open the region up.

Until you've opened that region up, if it remains isolated and it remains able to hide, in effect, from modern civilisation, it is going to remain very, very dangerous for us, he said.