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Mullen Talks Tough to Pakistan
ISLAMABAD—Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a Pakistani news channel Wednesday that links between Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence military spy agency and the Haqqani faction of the Taliban were continuing to strain relations between the countries.

Adm. Mullen's comments to GEO TV, a private network, signal that the U.S. is not backing down from an increasingly hostile battle with Pakistan over how to combat Islamist militants who operate on the border with Afghanistan.

Adm. Mullen is viewed as one of the most ardent proponents within the Obama administration for dialog with Pakistan. He has spoken highly of Gen. Kayani in the past and the two are said to have a strong working relationship.

Despite problems in the relationship, neither side is willing to jettison it completely. Pakistan relies on billions of dollars in U.S. military and civilian aid.
It will be a while before the Gulf countries' rent-an-army payments added to the income sent home by the rumoured (per Debka) 20,000 Pakistani prostitutes even begin to approach America's jizya payments. How much would the sale of a nuclear device or several to Saudi Arabia bring in?
The U.S. needs Pakistan to continue to fight militants, and it uses Pakistan as a transit route for supplies to troops in Afghanistan.
Posted by: trailing wife 2011-04-21
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=320836