Biden: US in Region to Prop Up Pakistan

Issues Conflicting Claims on al-Qaeda's Threat to Pakistan

Speaking today on NBC’s Meet the Press, Vice President Joe Biden insisted that the reason the United States still has some 100,000 troops in Central Asia is to “make sure that terrorists do not, in fact, bring down the Pakistani government.”

Biden insisted that al-Qaeda remains a serious threat to topple Pakistan’s civilian government, but declined to mention that al-Qaeda’s presence in Pakistan’s tribal areas began in the wake of the 2001 US invasion of Afghanistan.

It also seems the Vice President forgot, at least momentarily, that President Obama’s Thursday speech was centered around alleged claims of “progress” in the region and predictions of victory, but seemed to recover later, insisting that al-Qaeda in Pakistan was growing “weaker” and had been forced to “lower their ambitions.”

While it certainly is difficult to dispute the notion that the Zardari government could fall at any moment, the reality is that it would be yet another military junta taking over the country, not al-Qaeda, which seems to have next to no presence in the nation outside of tribal regions thazt are only nominally part of Pakistan to begin with.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.