U.S. Senator Defends Pakistan's President

Following a meeting with Pakistan's leader, the Senate's second-highest ranking Democrat on Wednesday defended the country's efforts to battle al Qaeda along its mountainous border with Afghanistan.

Speaking with reporters in a conference call from Iraq, Sen. Dick Durbin said Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf voiced concern over news reports that portray him as not doing enough to eradicate al Qaeda.

"It would be a mistake to conclude that they are not making the effort. I believe they have," Durbin said, citing the deaths of 600 Pakistani soldiers. "I just believe they can be more effective in the way they're doing it."

Durbin, the Senate's second-highest ranking Democrat, said Musharraf did not talk about fellow Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, who has been criticized by Pakistan's government for suggesting he was prepared to send U.S. military forces into Pakistan if that is what it would take to eliminate al Qaeda as a terrorist threat.

Durbin has been traveling in South Asia and the Middle East, including Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq, where he arrived Wednesday. He met with Musharraf on Tuesday.

Durbin is scheduled to be in Jordan on Thursday at a refugee camp with Democratic Sen. Bob Casey.

In Iraq, he visited U.S. troops at a remote patrol base and later met with Gen. David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker in Baghdad.

He said he envisions that even with U.S. troop withdrawal from Iraq there would still be some U.S. military personnel embedded with Iraq's army for training purposes. He did not speculate about how many troops should remain. The U.S. military presence now hovers around 165,000.

During much of the day Wednesday, Durbin was at a U.S. patrol base about 10 miles outside of Baghdad along the banks of the Tigris River, where he met with a force of about 900 servicemen, including many from Illinois.

In Afghanistan, Durbin had meetings with officials in Kabul and took a trip to a border region with Pakistan, where he said al Qaeda and Taliban forces often gather.

"I believe the Afghanis are anxious to stop the Taliban infiltration and al Qaeda as well," he said. "So, I have an optimistic feeling about this."

He cautioned that U.S. allies from NATO are still needed in Afghanistan.

"This is the war we should have focused on — the war we can win," Durbin added. "We have to do our best to finish this."

Meanwhile, Casey, on his first trip to Iraq, said he has been telling Iraqi leaders that Americans are troubled by the lack of political progress by the country's politicians.

"The troops have met every assignment, they've beaten the odds time and again, they've done everything we've asked them to," Casey said in a conference call with reporters. "You could make a good argument they've won the war, but some still say that we need lots more time and lots more troops and lots more in the way of resources."

Casey, who voted against a January plan that increased the number of troops in Iraq, said the Bush administration and political leaders in Iraq should be making progress that matches the intensity that U.S. troops have shown. He jas has not advocated for an immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops, but he has supported measures that would bring most troops home by April.