Top US lawmakers and Pentagon officials on Tuesday compared the less than enthusiastic response of Pakistan towards the war on terror to the presence of poisonous snakes in the region that will sooner or later turn around and cause problems in its own backyard.
"There is, I think, a growing recognition that you cannot allow poisonous snakes to have a nest in your backyard, even if they just bite the neighbour's kids, because sooner or later they're going to turn around and cause problems in your backyard," general David Petraeus, commander of US and NATO forces in Afghanistan told lawmakers.
"I think that sadly has proven to be the case," he underlined at a Congressional hearing.
Senator Carl Levin, chairman of the powerful senate armed services committee, said it was urgent to find ways to impress upon Pakistan that "their backyard is a backyard where snakes are permitted to continue to exist". "And those snakes are crossing the border."
Michele Flournoy, under secretary of defense for policy, said the Obama adminstration was "having extremely candid conversations about our expectations of what we would like to see our Pakistani partners do in areas like North Waziristan and elsewhere."
"We are also continuing to apply as much pressure as we can both from the Afghan side of the border and also in terms of pressure on al-Qaeda senior leadership in the border regions," Flournoy said.
Petraeus and Flournoy told senators at the hearing on the presence of terrorist safe heavens, to which the lawmakers expressed their grave concerns.
"You both have made reference to Pakistan and the safe havens which exist there, with the Pakistan government basically looking the other way in two key areas, that's North Waziristan and down in Quetta, where they know where those people are who are crossing the border and terrorizing Afghan citizens, attacking us, attacking Afghan forces, coalition forces," Levin said.
Pakistan may be looking the other way, "but I don't think we can look the other way about what they are not doing in those areas," he said.
"So I would ask you both, what, if anything more, can we do to persuade the Pakistanis to be the hammer, which I think you made indirect reference to, General Petraeus, so that when those forces cross the border, we can be the anvil?" Levin asked.
Petraeus said there is considerable pressure on al-Qaeda and on the Haqqani network in North Waziristan.
The recent Pakistan army's campaign there has disrupted significantly the activities of those groups.
"Additional steps must be taken to end the safe havens that insurgents use in Pakistan which impact on Afghanistan security," Levin said.
Though Pakistan deserves praise for some steps it has taken to fight al-Qaeda and Taliban groups on the Pakistani side of the border, senator John McCain said effective way needs to end Pakistan's support for terrorist groups that target US and its partners.
