Gohmert's strategy: Carve out Balochistan from Pakistan to beat Taliban
28 January, 2012
LAHORE: Arguing that US President Barack Obama is losing the war in Afghanistan to the Taliban, US Republican Louie Gohmert proposed one way to win: create a new, friendly state within the borders of neighbouring Pakistan, The Huffington Post reported. The Texas Republican took issue with Obama's assertion that "the Taliban's momentum has been broken". He told the newspaper he had just visited Afghanistan and came away with a very different sense from talking to members of the Northern Alliance, a multiethnic confederation of warlords, and other forces who led the US-backed ouster of the Taliban in 2001. Gohmert argued that, far from being broken, the Taliban are feeling powerful enough to demand that members of the Northern Alliance apologise before the United States leaves in 2013. "If you look at the objective facts ... they're not on the run," Gohmert said. His solution was first to supply more arms to the Northern Alliance. But then, he said, the Afghan border with Pakistan needs to be shored up. "Let's talk about creating a Balochistan in the southern part of Pakistan," Gohmert told The Huffington Post. "They love us. They'll stop the IEDs [improvised explosive devices] and all the weaponry coming into Afghanistan, and we got a shot to win over there," said Gohmert, who accused Obama's national security advisers of giving the president bad intelligence on Afghanistan. "His strategy of working from ignorance and thinking we have them on the run is no way to go through life, son," Gohmert said, adding, "I'm about to borrow from an 'Animal House' line, but anyway, that's no way to go through life when you're that ignorant of what's really going on." The White House did not answer the newspaper's request for comment, and Gohmert's office did not elaborate on how the United States could even discuss carving off Balochistan from Pakistan. The United States recently has been talking about a truce with the Taliban. Gohmert, a member of the US House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security, characterised such efforts as begging, backed by an offer to "let all these Taliban murderers" go free, The Huffington Post said. End.
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