KABUL - Since the US cannot rely on Pakistan to fight al-Qaeda we need Afghanistan to put our pressures on insurgent networks supported by Pakistan, Bruce Riedel a former advisor to President Barack Obama writes on the Daily Beast website.
An article by Bruce Riedel published on the Daily Beast on May 10 said "the notion that al-Qaeda was neutered was just plain wrong". The al-Qaeda leadership has already made a new leadership and they "will get help from support networks in Pakistan that helped hide Bin Laden for a decade".
"In short, al-Qaeda's leader was organising global terrorism from a headquarters deep inside Pakistan. He may have dyed his hair and liked to re-watch his own propaganda videos, but he was also dangerous," the article said.
The article finds the level of Pakistani support for al-Qaeda and other terror groups as the "most important" revelation of the US raid on Pakistan's soil.
It said it is not possible to think "we can target these terrorist networks in Pakistan without a base nearby in Afghanistan". Since attacks from other US bases like the Arabian Sea do not work "we need Afghanistan to launch our counterinsurgency operations, including drone attacks and commando raids".
The Afghan government should let us target the Taliban and al-Qaeda from their land, it said.
Pakistan has long been considered as a terrorism hub by Afghanistan and its western allies. However the death of Osama Bin Laden in Pakistan was a plain indication of Osama spending years and commanding attacks against Afghanistan and the world before he was shot dead. Pakistan government is still trying to beat around the bush refusing the broad linkage with the terrorist networks.
The two-day Kandahar raid that led to the death of a couple of people "showed that any substantial drawdown of NATO forces this summer would be strategically unwise and risky". Afghan security forces are not ready enough to take security lead, especially in southern regions.
The Kandahar attack launched by the Taliban "was planned from the group's safe havens in Pakistan", it said. (Tolo News)