Washington:
The Obama administration on Tuesday gave Congress a harshly critical assessment of Pakistan's efforts to defeat Al Qaida and other militants, saying that after years of work with the Pakistani military "there remains no clear path toward defeating the insurgency" that thrives in the country.
That conclusion, buried in a 38-page report on the state of the war in Afghanistan and the efforts to defeat Al Qaida in Pakistan, comes just three months before President Obama is scheduled to announce the pace at which American troops will be withdrawn from Afghanistan. It amounts to a concession that the effort to match Mr. Obama's "surge" of troops in Afghanistan with a new strategy to squeeze Al Qaida and the Taliban from the Pakistani side of the border has yielded virtually no results.
For more than a year American officials have expressed frustration with the slow pace of the Pakistani effort, which was further complicated by the devastating floods there last summer. But rarely have they gone public with the scope of those frustrations. The report issued Tuesday was not accompanied by any public statement by Mr. Obama, who, like President Bush before him, has been loath to publicly criticize the efforts of Pakistan.
But the report states clearly what many administration and Pentagon officials have long said in private: Without pressure from the Pakistani side of the border, it is virtually impossible to wipe out the strongholds of Taliban or Al Qaida, except through American-led Predator strikes from the air.
The report noted that an effort by the Pakistani military to clear militants from Mohmand, a part of the tribal areas in northwest Pakistan, was failing for the third time in two years. The failure was "a clear indicator of the inability of the Pakistan military and government to render cleared areas resistant to insurgency return," the report said.
The country cannot keep its helicopters flying, the report said, and is reluctant "to accept U.S.-provided helicopter maintenance teams," part of a broader concern about letting American troops operate openly on the ground in Pakistan.
"What remains vexing is the lack of any indication of 'hold' and 'build' planning or staging efforts to complement ongoing clearing operations," the report concluded. "As such, there remains no clear path toward defeating the insurgency in Pakistan, despite the unprecedented and sustained deployment of over 147,000 forces," and the deaths of 2,575 Pakistani troops since 2001.
The report also lamented the fact that four coordination centers operated by American, Pakistani and Afghan troops are up and running on the Afghan side of the border, but none are yet operating on the Pakistan side, despite a pledge in 2009 from Pakistan to do so.
Independent experts on Pakistan as well as Congressional aides said the report's assessment was more critical of Pakistan's counterinsurgency abilities than analyses in two earlier reports, which the administration sends to Congress every six months.
"It's pretty tough," said one Senate staff member who read the report on Tuesday afternoon. "It does sound like an expression of frustration that goes beyond previous reports."
In the past, the administration has praised the Pakistani efforts to carry out offensive operations against Taliban and other insurgents in six of the seven tribal areas -- all except North Waziristan -- but has chided the civilian government and military high command to do more.
In a report to Congress last September, the last before this week's, the administration essentially gave Pakistan's counterterrorism operations a pass, citing the effects of the floods that crippled much of the country. The disaster diverted Pakistani troops from conducting counterterrorism operations near the Afghan border, to delivering flood relief, for several months.
The September report sought to find a silver lining in the cataclysm, noting that the military's rescue and relief efforts "have positive effects on vesting the population with the national government, especially when those impacted citizens are in areas that are also facing threats from insurgents."
An administration official on Tuesday acknowledged the critical appraisal of Pakistan's efforts to combat its militancy -- an effort the United States pays more than $1 billion a year to support -- but the official cautioned that the American assessment was "a snapshot in time."
"This particular snapshot wraps up challenges that we've talked about piecemeal over several months," said the administration official, who was not authorized to speak on the record about the report. "In this case, we didn't see a clear path toward defeating the insurgency in Pakistan."
But the official emphasized that the critique was not a forecast of worse to come. He pointed out, for example, that the report also noted that Pakistan's troops in the northwestern and southwestern parts of the country were cooperating more closely with Afghan and NATO troops on the other side of the border in Afghanistan.
The report also painted a grim portrait of the country's financial well-being. "As a result of political gridlock, the government continues to be unable to develop consensus on difficult economic and fiscal reforms that are urgently required, including systemic tax reform," the report concluded.
What steps the government of President Asif Ali Zardari has taken are not likely to be enough to win the confidence of international donors and the International Monetary Fund, which have been urging wide-ranging changes to shore up the faltering economy.
"The deterioration of Pakistan's economy and slow progress on economic reforms poses the greatest threat to Pakistan's stability over the medium term," the report said.
That conclusion, buried in a 38-page report on the state of the war in Afghanistan and the efforts to defeat Al Qaida in Pakistan, comes just three months before President Obama is scheduled to announce the pace at which American troops will be withdrawn from Afghanistan. It amounts to a concession that the effort to match Mr. Obama's "surge" of troops in Afghanistan with a new strategy to squeeze Al Qaida and the Taliban from the Pakistani side of the border has yielded virtually no results.
For more than a year American officials have expressed frustration with the slow pace of the Pakistani effort, which was further complicated by the devastating floods there last summer. But rarely have they gone public with the scope of those frustrations. The report issued Tuesday was not accompanied by any public statement by Mr. Obama, who, like President Bush before him, has been loath to publicly criticize the efforts of Pakistan.
But the report states clearly what many administration and Pentagon officials have long said in private: Without pressure from the Pakistani side of the border, it is virtually impossible to wipe out the strongholds of Taliban or Al Qaida, except through American-led Predator strikes from the air.
The report noted that an effort by the Pakistani military to clear militants from Mohmand, a part of the tribal areas in northwest Pakistan, was failing for the third time in two years. The failure was "a clear indicator of the inability of the Pakistan military and government to render cleared areas resistant to insurgency return," the report said.
The country cannot keep its helicopters flying, the report said, and is reluctant "to accept U.S.-provided helicopter maintenance teams," part of a broader concern about letting American troops operate openly on the ground in Pakistan.
"What remains vexing is the lack of any indication of 'hold' and 'build' planning or staging efforts to complement ongoing clearing operations," the report concluded. "As such, there remains no clear path toward defeating the insurgency in Pakistan, despite the unprecedented and sustained deployment of over 147,000 forces," and the deaths of 2,575 Pakistani troops since 2001.
The report also lamented the fact that four coordination centers operated by American, Pakistani and Afghan troops are up and running on the Afghan side of the border, but none are yet operating on the Pakistan side, despite a pledge in 2009 from Pakistan to do so.
Independent experts on Pakistan as well as Congressional aides said the report's assessment was more critical of Pakistan's counterinsurgency abilities than analyses in two earlier reports, which the administration sends to Congress every six months.
"It's pretty tough," said one Senate staff member who read the report on Tuesday afternoon. "It does sound like an expression of frustration that goes beyond previous reports."
In the past, the administration has praised the Pakistani efforts to carry out offensive operations against Taliban and other insurgents in six of the seven tribal areas -- all except North Waziristan -- but has chided the civilian government and military high command to do more.
In a report to Congress last September, the last before this week's, the administration essentially gave Pakistan's counterterrorism operations a pass, citing the effects of the floods that crippled much of the country. The disaster diverted Pakistani troops from conducting counterterrorism operations near the Afghan border, to delivering flood relief, for several months.
The September report sought to find a silver lining in the cataclysm, noting that the military's rescue and relief efforts "have positive effects on vesting the population with the national government, especially when those impacted citizens are in areas that are also facing threats from insurgents."
An administration official on Tuesday acknowledged the critical appraisal of Pakistan's efforts to combat its militancy -- an effort the United States pays more than $1 billion a year to support -- but the official cautioned that the American assessment was "a snapshot in time."
"This particular snapshot wraps up challenges that we've talked about piecemeal over several months," said the administration official, who was not authorized to speak on the record about the report. "In this case, we didn't see a clear path toward defeating the insurgency in Pakistan."
But the official emphasized that the critique was not a forecast of worse to come. He pointed out, for example, that the report also noted that Pakistan's troops in the northwestern and southwestern parts of the country were cooperating more closely with Afghan and NATO troops on the other side of the border in Afghanistan.
The report also painted a grim portrait of the country's financial well-being. "As a result of political gridlock, the government continues to be unable to develop consensus on difficult economic and fiscal reforms that are urgently required, including systemic tax reform," the report concluded.
What steps the government of President Asif Ali Zardari has taken are not likely to be enough to win the confidence of international donors and the International Monetary Fund, which have been urging wide-ranging changes to shore up the faltering economy.
"The deterioration of Pakistan's economy and slow progress on economic reforms poses the greatest threat to Pakistan's stability over the medium term," the report said.
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