WASHINGTON: Former
Pakistani ambassador to U.S. and U.K. and current
Public Policy Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center
Dr. Maleeha Lodhi has told the U.S. Senate's
Committee on Foreign Relations that more foreign
troops in Afghanistan will not help harness the
problem on the ground unless a political strategy is
put in place.
She was testifying to the Committee
on Thursday to discuss Afghanistan's Impact on
Pakistan. Committee Chairman Senator John F. Kerry
(D) conducted the proceedings while ranking member
of the Committee Senator Dick Lugar (R), Senator
Russell Feingold, Senator Robert Casey, Senator
Jeanne Shaheen, and Senator Bob Corker attended the
meeting and asked questions to the panel.
The other two panelist included
former CIA Station Chief in Islamabad, Milt Bearden,
and President New America Foundation, Steve Coll.
Dr. Maleeha warned, "The
choice for the US should not be between an
open-ended, escalating military engagement and "cut
and run" from Afghanistan. Both could be disastrous.
A precipitous withdrawal would repeat the strategic
mistake of the 1990s when the US abandoned
Afghanistan to the chaos that nurtured Al Qaeda.
Open-ended military escalation risks trapping the
West in a Vietnam-style quagmire: a war without end
with no guarantee of success."
She recommended that instead of
focusing on a military solution to defeat Al Qaeda,
the ideological front should not be ignored. She
cautioned that Al Qaeda now existed more as an
ideology in people's mind as a source of inspiration
which is far more dangerous phenomenon.
The former Pakistani ambassador also
stressed that the key issues that plague the Muslim
world need to be resolved in a just manner.
