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Jim Watson / Reuters
US Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, left, speaks with Afghanistan Defense Minister General Abdul Rahim Wardak during a joint news conference Thursday at the Ministry of Defense in Kabul.
KABUL -- The United States is reaching the limits of its patience with Pakistan because it provides safe havens to insurgents from neighboring Afghanistan, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Thursday.
Speaking in the Afghan capital of Kabul, Panetta used some of the strongest language by a senior U.S. official to describe the strained ties between Washington and Islamabad.
"It is difficult to achieve peace in Afghanistan as long as there is safe haven for terrorists in Pakistan," said Panetta, who was holding talks with military leaders amid rising violence in the war against the Taliban. "It is very important for Pakistan to take steps. It is an increasing concern, the issue of safe haven, and we are reaching the limits of our patience."
Pakistan's ambassador to the United States said Panetta's comments would make it harder for the two countries to narrow their differences.
"It adds an unhelpful twist to the process and leaves little oxygen for those of us seeking to break a stalemate," Pakistan's envoy, Sherry Rehman, said in a statement.
US urges bigger role for India in Afghanistan
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Thursday implicitly defended Washington's use of drone strikes against suspected militants, just days after one of them killed Abu Yahya al-Libi, al-Qaida's second-ranking leader, in northwest Pakistan.
"We will always maintain our right to use force against groups such as al-Qaida that have attacked us and still threaten us with imminent attack," Clinton said in Istanbul at a meeting of the Global Counterterrorism Forum, a U.S.-and Turkish-chaired group.
The White House confirmed the death of deputy al-Qaida leader Abu Yahya al-Libi in Pakistan, believed to rank second in the organization. NBC's Brian Williams reports.
A senior U.S. official acknowledged Thursday that the recent increase in drone strikes on insurgents in Pakistan — targeting mostly al-Qaida but other militants as well — is partly a result of frustration with Islamabad. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive operations.
Panetta in Afghanistan for talks amid rising violence
Panetta urged Pakistan to go after the Haqqani militant network, one of the United States' most feared enemies in Afghanistan, and said Washington would exert diplomatic pressure and take any other steps needed to protect its forces.
"It is an increasing concern that safe havens exist and those like the Haqqanis make use of that to attack our forces," he said.
Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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So, we Americans enjoy one the best standards of living in the world. But there is a price to pay. We consume more energy than any other country in the world. So the trade off, ladies and gentelmen, is that we have to keep our boys over there, 8, 9, 10 deployments sometimes.
So, is it worth it?
Join the Navy, Air Force or Coast guard, young people. Why should you be cannon fodder so the one percenters get .50 cents per share more on their stock?
Newsflash franklyorange, joining the Airforce and Navy won't keep you from being cannon fodder. There were thousands of Airman and Sailors used as good ole ground pounders in Iraq because that horses ass rumsfeldt said, "you go to war with the military you have". If you recall General Shinseki was fired for telling rumsfeldt how many troops he would actually need to take and control Iraq.
Just saying.
Islam was the problem for centuries when the Ottoman Empire invaded Christian counties. Told the Christian
People of those counties to convert to Islam or die. We know what their so called holly book tells them. The
Quran contains at least 530 verses that call Muslims to go to war with nonbelievers. Like this one 2:193a. Allah says that you must keep fighting until there is no more persecution and everyone on earth is a Muslim. Then you can stop killing people. Islam is an evil Religion. Islam is not of peace like many of our world leaders tells us.
if we cut the world off to our foreign aid how fast would our own debt go away? when will our pol iticians learn can't buy friends.
Not very fast. Obamas foreign aid to the unions is larger than foreign aid to foreign countries.
foreign aid accounts for a fraction of 1% of a budget that is on the order of 20-30% over.
so the answer is :it won't do anything but slow the loss slightly
Pakistan protected the biggest terrorists criminals for over 10 years, pretending to be our allies while we gave them billions of dollars of co-op money. We never even got a jar of KY while we were totally screwed over royally by these backstabbing bandits involved in world wide terrorist activities! The real big war should have been with THEM in the first place, not Iraq or any other middle east country Totally isolate those countries that support their ideals. Get REAL for what they really are===TERRORISTS ON A GRAND SCALE!!! ONE PROBLEM THOUGH---9/11 disaster was mostly from extremist SAUDIS!!! WHAT DOES THAT TELL YOU??? It means you can't trust any of these mid east ---holes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Afghanistan is just a suburb of Pakistan--they are one and the same. It's high time we treat Pakistan as a terrorist nation that is harboring terrorists that follows the Bush rule--if you harbor terrorists--you are a terrorist. Perhaps it would if Obama weren't so political in his objections of acknowledging this as a fact instead of hee-hawing around it because he doesn't want to give Bush any credit.
Ancient Chinese proverb say...
"He who go to bed with itchy butt wake up with smelly finger"
And we continue to give them Billions of dollars only to tell us over and over we are withholding some as a stance on what? Pakistan could care less and knows we will continue to bow to them if we continue to want anything from them. Where is India on all this?
Rushing to start wars with Iran, China, and now Pakistan... Some idiots just never learn do they?
Until Panetta (and Obama) cuts funding to Pakistan, I have no reason believe what Panetta is currently espousing. Why on earth are we still giving Pakistan (spelled Schizophrenic-Stan) some $3,000,000,000.00 per year?
Pakistan has completely shut down our main supply route. We should stop the $3 billion immediately as well.
So is Obamas staff.
Loosing patients ? damn , where have I heard those words echoed before ? posters , help me out with this , was it N.Korea ? Gaza ? Iraq ? Iran ? Libya ? ? Syria ? I know damn well I've heard it, ust can't pin point it. Well it's late so maybe it will come to me in the morning, I'll let you know.
Strange, Obamas death panel is proposing the same thing.
yeah, because the insurance companies pre-ACA policy of not insuring people with "pre-existing conditions" doesn't qualify as a real-life "death-panel" does it?
the republican health care plan: "let the poor go crawl under a rock and die"
Kill them all- paki, afghani, iraqi, irani........ they're nothing more than sub-human vermin.
Since Pakistan isn't doing anything about the terrorists, we should ask them, do you prefer we keep using drones or just switch to big nukes instead?
Surely Pakistan's patience with US is also waning, after these relentless drone strikes killing Pakistani soldiers and civilians.
but all these were on Obamas Kill List so should be ok.
porbably more people are being killed because we are there than if we were to mind our own business and just defend our borders. more people die in auto accidents in the U.S. never mind how many of us kill each other! war is just a profit game.
Pakistan our message is clear: No more money or help from America. Meet the ugly American when you betray us and seek to hurt our people or allies. The final message is this, if you use your nukes or support terror we will continue to use our drones and if you give a nuke or light one off at us we will take out all your capitol cities just like we did in WWII. Just think how many of your crazies could be sent to meet their virgins!
So what, then, does the US think of the Middle East?
I guess with the announcement of our drones now being able to land on aircraft carriers we can do away with these countries that support terrorists..we soon will not need to put "boots" on the ground..only for clean-up and special ops..then we can drop the blackmail (aid) .We won't need "their" land to base attack ops.and or their cooperation for a price.