WASHINGTON - Faced with a bloody Taliban resurgence in Afghanistan, President Bush over the next several days will be prodding leaders from Afghanistan and Pakistan to work together against Islamic extremists.
The diplomatic arm-twisting comes at a particularly challenging time in a region that remains a spawning ground for international terrorism. In Afghanistan, a Taliban military offensive is testing the viability of the U.S.-backed government in Kabul. Neighboring Pakistan continues to serve as a haven for Taliban operatives and al-Qaida terrorists.
"The real war on terror is going on in Afghanistan, and, frankly, it's not at all clear that we're winning," said William Milam, a former U.S. ambassador to Pakistan. "Pakistan could help by keeping the Taliban out of there."
Bush is sure to deliver a similar message to Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf when they meet in the Oval Office on Friday. He'll also press Musharraf for information on the search for Osama bin Laden, the al-Qaida leader who's believed to be operating in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region.
Engaging in shuttle diplomacy from the comfort of the White House, Bush will meet Tuesday with Afghan President Hamid Karzai before welcoming both leaders to a three-way summit over dinner on Wednesday. It could be a heartburn-inducing meal.
"Karzai and Musharraf do not like each other," said Stephen Cohen, a South Asia specialist at the Brookings Institution. "Our influence with both is declining."
Barnett Rubin, a South Asia expert at New York University's Center on International Cooperation, told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Thursday that Pakistan has become "the global center of terrorism." He said Bush should use a "big diplomatic stick" to force Musharraf to shut down the Taliban's headquarters in Quetta, a provincial capital.
"The government of Pakistan has done virtually nothing to disrupt the command and control of the Taliban, which is based in Pakistan," Rubin told the Senate panel. "The destabilization of Afghanistan, insofar as it's coming from abroad, is coming from Pakistan, regardless of the fact that President Musharraf speaks good English, wears a suit and says things that we like to hear."
Karzai has complained repeatedly that Musharraf isn't doing enough to keep Islamic extremists from using Pakistan as a base for attacks in Afghanistan. Pakistan was one of three countries, along with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, that recognized the Taliban regime when it served as al-Qaida's government sponsor in Afghanistan.
Musharraf switched sides after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, but critics say he's been a less-than-stalwart ally in the war on terrorism - despite an infusion of more than $3 billion in U.S. aid to Pakistan since his conversion.
Although Pakistan has captured some well-known al-Qaida members, including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged Sept. 11 mastermind, it hasn't arrested a single Taliban leader.
On Thursday, Marine Gen. James Jones, NATO's top military commander, confirmed that the Taliban leadership is directing the insurgency from Quetta, the capital of a Pakistani province.
Musharraf recently pulled his troops back into their barracks in the border region for what he said were promises from separatists to halt infiltration into Afghanistan. But Western diplomats in Kabul said the deal has effectively ceded the region to the militants.
Musharraf, who has survived multiple assassination attempts, bristles at suggestions that he's soft on terrorism. During a visit to the United Nations earlier this week, he suggested that Afghanistan is exporting extremists to his country.
Musharraf said Pakistan has been burdened with 3 million Afghan refugees, "some of them sympathetic to the Taliban." He blamed the Taliban's resurgence on home-grown Afghan extremists.
"Where were they from, Pakistan?" he asked sarcastically. "Certainly they were from Afghanistan. They were the people of Afghanistan who took over Afghanistan under (Taliban leader) Mullah Omar."
Bush has tussled with both leaders over military operations in their countries. He rebuffed Karzai's efforts last year to assert more Afghan control over U.S. military operations. Bush and Musharraf differed publicly this week over whether the United States could attack bin Laden in Pakistan without involving the Pakistani military.
Bush told CNN on Wednesday that he "absolutely" would send U.S. forces into Pakistan if he had good information on bin Laden's whereabouts. When asked for his reaction, Musharraf told reporters, "We wouldn't like to allow that at all. We will do it ourselves."
