Washington:
As President Barack Obama prepares to announce his Afghan policy, top Senators have asked him to include Pakistan in it, arguing that the country is "more unstable" than in the past and is directly linked with insurgency in neighbouring Afghanistan.
"You have a situation where Al-Qaida has reconstituted itself. You have Pakistan, which is more unstable today than it was in the past. All these things have developed over the last several years," Senator Jack Reed said in an interview.
"The President has to mention Pakistan. What is the implication of that war there, and Pakistan itself?" Senator Richard Lugar, ranking member of the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs, said.
Noting that Afghanistan is crucial, Lugar said, we have been concentrating on the number of troops and so forth. Now the President will need to outline that, and he will need to do so with confidence, that this is not a few troops here, a few troops there, a re-evaluation each time through.
Reed said Obama has to speak to the American people, remind them why the US is there, and also lay out a strategy, not just the reflexive response to a recommendation, but a strategy that involves protecting the homeland from Al-Qaida.