Adm. Mullen: We cannot let the Pakistan relationship come apart

Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff arrives at Forward Operating Base Jackson, Afghanistan on April 19, 2011. Mullen is visiting the Central Command area of operation supporting a USO tour to the region and visiting counterparts and service members stationed in the area.

/ Department of Defense photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Chad J. McNeeley

Christopher Isham, Washington bureau chief for CBS News, filed this report from Islamabad, Pakistan

The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Michael J. Mullen arrived in Pakistan Wednesday like a messenger in a storm bearing a clearly mixed message -- that the United States is profoundly upset by the continuing attacks on U.S. soldiers by Pakistan-based, and perhaps supported, insurgents but that the relationship between the two countries is much too important to abandon.

In interviews with U.S. and Pakistani reporters, Mullen said that the relationship between the Pakistani intelligence service, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), and the Afghan insurgent group known as the Haqqani network, was at the "core" of the problems between the U.S. and Pakistan.

Before arriving in Pakistan, Mullen travelled to eastern and southern Afghanistan meeting with U.S. and coalition commanders who detailed both the progress on the battlefield and the persistent American casualties. One senior U.S. military officer carries with him a stack of 121 cards, each with the photograph and name of the troops killed under his command in the past year alone--deaths that he attributed to the Haqqani network.

Mullen stressed that it was his "sacred duty" as America's most senior military officer to represent in the strongest terms possible his objection to any support that is being provided to the Haqqani group by Pakistani intelligence.

For its part, Pakistani officials are equally irritated at the U.S., believing that the U.S. is insufficiently sensitive and often arrogant regarding important issues of national sovereignty. Pakistani officials point to the case of the  CIA contractor Raymond Davis, who shot and killed two assailants in broad daylight in downtown Lahore on January 27, and the increase in attacks by unmanned aircraft against insurgents in eastern Pakistan, which many here say are not coordinated with Pakistani security officials.

Mullen acknowledged that the two countries were in the midst of a "turbulent time," but that both countries understand the importance of salvaging the situation. "I think that all of us believe that we cannot let this relationship come apart," he said.

Mullen, who met one-on-one with Pakistan's army chief, Ashfaq Kiyani Wednesday evening, said that the stakes were simply too high. " We walk away from it at our peril, quite frankly," he warned.

[Nikos_Retsos]

Pardon U.S. Admiral Michael Mullen for sounding so desperate about the U.S. effort to make any headway in the Afghan war. After 10 years of futility and bluffy U.S. military bravado in the battlefields of Afghanistan, and after an Obama promise to start withdrawing U.S. troops this summer, Admiral Mullen is just venting the frustration of his boss for the worsening situation in Afghanistan! Obama promised in his 2007 presidential campaign to end the war in Afghanistan, but now - 4 years later- he worries that the Afghan war may scuttle his re-election. And before his Republicans opponents start to pound on his Afghan war failures, Obama's re-election team invented a whipping boy to take the blame: The Pakistani ISI (Inter-Service Intelligence). But since he doesn't want to sound desperate or weak in-person on his failures, he assigned his underling admiral Mullen to do the barking at the Pakistani establishment. And since the diplomatic protocol doesn't allow him to accuse directly the political leadership -his supposed allies, the ISI was the perfect punching bag to pound on!

This is an escalation in the hostility of the U.S.- Pakistan relations as the U.S. defeat in the Afghan war looks inevitable the longer the war quagmire drags on. Obama thought in his 2007-2008 presidential campaign that he could promise "an end to the Afghan war," on quote, and he will have 4 years to win it, and then sail as a hero into his 2012 re-election campaign. Now he has nothing to show for -even with a 30.000 troop surge in Afghanistan, with 3.000 CIA mercenary army in Pakistan, and with thousands of civilian deaths by CIA Predator drones that has turned Pakistan into a boiling cauldron of anti-American hostility. The AFP reported on March 11, 2011 that 2010 was the deadliest year for civilians in Afghanistan, 2.777, a 15% increase over 2009. In Pakistan, the total civilian deaths by CIA Predator drones were 2.170 so far (Pakistan Dawn Newspaper, April 6, 2011) Add to that many reports that the U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan killed civilians "for sport," (Chicago Tribune, March 24, 2011), and the U.S. war and bombing in both Afghanistan and Pakistan has gone haywire and it is slipping into an antagonistic brawl with Pakistan. Pakistan's Chief of Staff, Gen. Ashfaq Kayani complained that "Pakistan has become America's most bullied ally," and told his American counterparts -Mullen and Patraeus- "I don't trust you!" (Washington Post, Jan 1, 2011)

Now Admiral Mullen barbs to the Pakistan army that he "doesn't trust it," General Kayani calls Mullen's remarks "propaganda," and the ISI calls the CIA an "adversary!" On the meantime, corrupt Afghan officials prepare for life in exile when the U.S. throw in the towel, and the Karzai regime collapse by siphoning $$$$ out. The Afghan V.P. Ahmed Zia Masoud was found to carry bags with $ 52 million in a flight from Kabul to the United Arab Emirates (Bloomberg, Nov. 29, 2010) At the same time, 60% of the poor Afghans "have become depressed or suffer mental problems" as the result of the long U.S. occupation and war. (BBC, Dec. 1, 2010) Overall, the whole U.S. involvement in Central Asia is reaching a frenetic stage. Afghan president Hamid Karzai has accused the U.S. dozens of times that it is bombing Afghans civilians thoughtlessly, and the U.S. has countered with accusations that his thinking is marred by anti-depressant medications. Now we are into a hostile shouting match with Pakistan accusing each-other of mistrust and collusion with each-others enemies. It is becoming clear day-by-day that the U.S. has " no real allies" in either Afghanistan or Pakistan.

Will Barack Obama win the propaganda war -as Gen. Ashfaq Kayani correctly pointed out- and saddle Karzai and the ISI for his failures in the Afghan war? Admiral Mullen's barbs are the first propaganda salvos of Obama's re-election campaign. But I doubt if Obama would be able to unload his failure of the Afghan war on his slandered and bullied Afghan and Pakistan allies. Nikos Retsos, retired professor

[lucifersshadow]

The military industrial complex is all for interfering in countries in the Middle East, more money in their pockets every time anything happens over there. They do not seem to mind that we are being raped by Pakistan, look at all the money that Pakistan has received from us and all the RESULTS we got. Also look at all of our tax dollars that were spent to get "poor" Ray Davis out of Pakistan. These clowns in charge of our military are good at shooting themselves in the foot and giving America the shaft, that is about it.

[imnho]

Keeping Pakistan from falling into the hands of a terrorist group needs to be a priority. That could avoid a situation here we are forced to use some very terrible miltary options.

[jgg000101]

In addition to pakistan, our relationships in egypt, saudi arabia and turkey are crumbling. And iraq and afghanistan are worse. In fact, the entire middle east is in turmoil.

[OnTheRoad01]

The relationship between the U.S. and Pakistan is already beyond hope!

[Jaylah54]

Because what we so obviously CAN afford is the billions of dollars we keep giving to the Pakistani government as bribe money for them not to do exactly what they're already doing, right?

I mean, it's not like our economy is crumbling or anything, right? Not like we're in debt up to our eyeballs and still spending money like it's water running through our fingers or anything, right?

[Birdman04]

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that if we do not have troops in harms way, troops will not be killed and maimed.

Whatever reasons we may have had to be in that stinky cesspool of a desert have long since ceased to exist. Get our people out of that hell hole and back on American soil where they rightfully belong.

Enough of our brave sons and daughters have died for a cause no one even cares about anymore. Protecting our interests abroad is nothing more than sacrificing our kids as cannon fodder for no good reason.