Petraeus, who took over in Afghanistan after General Stanley McChrystal was fired for intemperate remarks in a magazine interview about President Barack Obama and his administration, also said Pakistan's strategy for providing sanctuaries for terrorist groups was part of its plan to counter India.
Petraeus's defence of the Pakistani military and their rationale for maintaining links with terrorist groups, is a continuing Pentagon policy of heaping kudos on the Pakistani military and arguing that if their concerns over India can be alleviated, much of these terrorist outfits can be dismantled.
At a briefing hosted by the National Journal at the Newseum in Washington, DC, the top US Commander testified before several Congressional committees, including the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the House Foreign Affairs Committee, on the situation in Afghanistan. "Very likely among the most important ways to influence what happens over time in Pakistan is to continue to make progress in Afghanistan," said Petraeus.
He said the hedging on bets by Islamabad "is because there is an uncertainty about how Afghanistan will turn out. And, I think it is understandable that Pakistan should want that the country to its west is not again a proxy for India."
Thus, Petraeus argued, "That's hugely important and I think it's a reasonable desire on the part of our Pakistani partners."
He asserted that it was important to note what Pakistan has done over the last two years. "They have lost thousands of soldiers and thousands of civilians in a very impressive counter-insurgency campaign to clear the Swat Valley and the other areas. This has been very, very tough," the US commander said, and spoke of how the Pakistani military have moved a lot of forces to focus on this effort.
"They've increased by at least a third the forces that are out there and taken a number of internal reforms to reconfigure them for this kind of combat and they've done it very, very impressively and sacrificed a great deal. Having said that, Pakistani forces will be the first to tell you that there are other groups that are causing problems in the region and that too have to be dealt with," he added,
Petraeus noted the fact is that it is hugely important that there is a campaign in North Waziristan that is putting enormous, unprecedented pressure on the Al Qaeda sanctuary there. "This is of huge significance to our partners, our allies in Europe and to the homeland," he said.
Conceding that there are havens of terrorist groups in the region he said, "We've often talked about how, over time, Pakistan is working to come to grips with this dynamic."
Petraeus pointed out, "Remember that we funded these groups in the very beginning, and this is how we got rid of the Soviets from Afghanistan and then in the wake of Charlie Wilson's war we left. We should remember that. We have seen this movie before. What happens if you disengage?"
US Congressman Charlie Wilson partnered with Central Intelligence Agency operative Gust Avrakotos to launch Operation Cyclone, a programme to organise and support the Afghan mujahideen in their resistance to the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.
He said, as a consequence "there are these groups and this is the conundrum of allowing poisonous snakes to have a nest in your backyard with the tacit understanding they are going to bite the neighbour's kids. But, sooner or later, they turn around and bite your kids and in fact, that's how the Punjabi Taliban has."
"And, so, there is a worrisome development where youth from some of the settled areas are being radicalised in the tribal areas. And, this is the kind of challenge in addition to, of course, the various political, social and economic challenges that Pakistan faces. This is the kind of challenge that they are working to come to grips with," the commander said.
Patraeus said he was extremely close to Pakistan's Army chief General Ashfaq Kayani. "I've met him twice just in the last four weeks alone and we are working more closely than ever on coordinated operations on either side of the border."
He disclosed that if Al Qaeda are forced to displace from Pakistan it will be hugely significant. "They will have to leave behind infrastructure, relationships, networks, command, control systems and everything else that they've established over the last 20 or 30 years."
"When the Taliban had to leave the Jari district they left behind massive caches of weapons, explosives. We are finding four times more caches of explosive than we ever found before. We are working in the areas which the terrorists have to leave or they are either killed or captured there," he said.
However, Patraeus has chosen to conveniently ignore the concerns of US lawmakers about this dual-track policy by General Kayani's troops and the Inter-Services Intelligence.
