Eideard

Daylife/Reuters Pictures

The United States will give Pakistan the tools in needs to defeat al Qaeda, but it expects accountability in return, President Barack Obama said in an interview about his new Afghan strategy.

On CBS’s “Face the Nation” program, Obama also said if the United States had al Qaeda leaders in its sights in Pakistan, it would go after them after consulting Pakistani authorities…

“One of the concerns that we’ve had building up over the last several years is a notion, I think, among the average Pakistani, that this is somehow America’s war and they are not invested,” Obama said.

“What we want to do is say to the Pakistani people — you are our friends, you are our allies. We are going to give you the tools to defeat al Qaeda and to root out these safe havens, but we also expect some accountability,” he said.

He also said the United States would go after so-called “high-value” targets in Pakistan after consulting with Pakistani authorities…”Our plan does not change the recognition of Pakistan as a sovereign government,” Obama said. “We need to work with them and through them to deal with al Qaeda. But we have to hold them much more accountable.”

Daylife/AP Photo

For example:

Four vehicles and offices of a terminal storing containers filled with NATO military supplies were burned in Peshawar, Pakistan.

Hundreds of suspected Taliban militants carrying rockets and rifles stormed the Farhad terminal Saturday and set fire to four vehicles loaded with supplies bound for Afghanistan, as well as other equipment, a security guard told the English-language newspaper Dawn.

The owner of the terminal told the newspaper…the destruction happened despite 20 police officers and eight private guards being deployed at the terminal.

The Pakistan government spent about 2 months in an unsuccessful effort to push back Taliban insurgents – and then signed a peace treaty. I suggest that what President Obama means by accountability and cooperation in an example like the Taliban raid, this weekend, is that our field officers along the Pakistan border will be keeping an eye on crap like this.

Meanwhile, there will be oversight designed to check on bucks actually going into Pakistan military training, equipment and preparedness – instead of a bank account in Jakarta or Kuala Lumpur.