President Obama said he is confident that terrorist groups such as the Taliban and al Qaeda won’t be able to seize Pakistani nuclear-tipped ballistic missiles.
However, Obama also said at a White House news conference he is worried by the fragility of the Pakistani civilian government, doubting its ability to function properly and provide a modicum of needed government services.
Obama plans to meet later this week with leaders of the Pakistani and Afghan governments, in a White House summit.
His comments come as Obama later this month is expected to release a federal budget plan that would provide no new funding for the planned European Missile Defense (EMD) system that could protect Europe, U.S. troops there, and the United States against missiles fired from Iran, and also from Pakistan.
As part of a plan to slash $1.4 billion to $2.3 billion from the roughly $10 billion annual U.S. missile defense effort, a plan written by Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, Obama is expected to propose zero funds for EMD in fiscal 2010, leaving the program to coast along on any money it may have left over from the current fiscal 2009.
The EMD system is a variant of the Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system now installed in Alaska and California. GMD aims to protect the United States from long-range or intercontinental missiles launched by North Korea or other Asian nations. Obama would supply no further interceptor missiles to the GMD in fiscal 2010, and also would buy no more Airborne Laser missile defense aircraft. (Please see Space & Missile Defense Report, Monday, April 6, 2009.)
The EMD, GMD and Airborne Laser missile defense programs all are led by The Boeing Co. [BA].
In the White House news conference, Obama was asked about Pakistan, where Taliban forces have taken over the Swat valley. (Please see Space & Missile Defense Report, Monday, April 27, 2009.)
Obama was asked if he could reassure the American people that if necessary America could secure Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal and keep it from being seized by the Taliban or al Qaeda. Osama bin Laden, the al Qaeda leader who masterminded and funded the 9/11 attacks on America, has said it is the religious duty of al Qaeda members to obtain nuclear weapons.
“I’m confident that we can make sure that Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal is secure,” Obama replied, “because the Pakistani army, I think, recognizes the hazards of those weapons falling into the wrong hands. We’ve got strong military-to-military consultation and cooperation.”
At the same time, while the military there may be solid, Obama indicated the civilian government seems wobbly.
“I am gravely concerned about the situation in Pakistan, not because I think that they’re immediately going to be overrun and the Taliban would take over in Pakistan,” after taking over a provincial area about 70 miles from the capital city Islamabad. “I’m more concerned that the civilian government there right now is very fragile and don’t seem to have the capacity to deliver basic services: schools, health care, rule of law, a judicial system that works for the majority of the people.
“And so as a consequence, it is very difficult for them to gain the support and the loyalty of their people. So we need to help Pakistan help Pakistanis. And I think that there’s a recognition increasingly on the part of both the civilian government there and the army that that is their biggest weakness.”
Seeking a silver lining, Obama said it may be well that the Pakistani leadership is shifting the focus of its concerns from India, to the increasing militancy of “militant extremists” such as the Taliban.
Obama would “continue to encourage Pakistan to move in that direction,” and provide Pakistan with assistance, because the United States has “huge strategic interests, huge national security interests in making sure that Pakistan is stable and that you don’t end up having a nuclear-armed militant state.”
Still, Obama said at this time, “I feel confident that that nuclear arsenal will remain out of militant hands.”
One of his Cabinet members, however, was more concerned.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sees the Taliban posing “an existential threat” to Pakistan.
In a House Armed Services Committee hearing, Rep. John M. McHugh of New York, the ranking Republican member, also voiced concern.
“The security situation in Pakistan continues to be volatile,” McHugh said. He said one has but “to look at the recent movement of Taliban elements eastward toward Islamabad” to see a rising threat.
And fractures within the Pakistani governing powers increase those worries, McHugh said.
“It seems to me, that there is little debate that Pakistan is an essential partner in the war on terror,” McHugh said, “but it is also a nation facing a complex set of challenges, including internal political uncertainty; an economic crisis; a resourceful and adaptable extremist threat; and ongoing tension with India that was reignited following the Mumbai attacks.”