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U.S. past Pakistan policy incoherent, says Hillary

Washington: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton trashed U.S.’ policy towards Pakistan over the last 30 years calling it “incoherent”. She also acknowledged the U.S. shared the blame for the current mess in Pakistan.

In her first interaction with foreign journalists on Tuesday, Ms. Clinton mentioned Pakistan several times but did not make any reference to U.S.’ ties with India.

Earlier at the White House, Ms. Clinton hailed the “real national mood change” in Pakistan against Taliban and Islamabad’s recognition of the “serious threat” posed by the extremists. At the White House, Ms. Clinton unveiled a $110-million emergency humanitarian aid to Pakistan to counter the appeal of Taliban among the nearly 2 million civilians displaced by the military operations against the militants in the Swat Valley.

“I think when we ask the question it is fair to apportion responsibility to the Pakistanis. But it’s also fair for us to ask ourselves what we have done and how we have done it over all these years? And what role did we play in the situation that the Pakistanis currently confront?” she said.

“We came in the 1980’s and helped to build up Mujahedeen to take on the Soviet Union in Afghanistan. The Pakistanis were our partners in that. Their security service and their military were encouraged and funded by the United States to create the Mujahedeen in order to go after the Soviet invasion and occupation,” she said.

About after the Soviet Union’s fall in 1989, Ms. Clinton said: “We basically said — thank you very much. We had all kinds of problems in terms of sanctions being imposed on the Pakistanis.” — PTI

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