Bush vows support for Pakistans anti-terrorism efforts

CNews WASHINGTON: US President George W Bush on Tuesday called President Asif Ali Zardari to greet him on his election and vowed Washington’s full support for the elected government’s efforts to defeat violent extremism. “This morning I called Pakistan’s newly elected leader President Zardari. I pledged the full support of America’s government as Pakistan takes the fight to the terrorists and extremists in the (Pakistan-Afghan) border region,” Bush said at the National Defense University, where he announced additional deployments for Pakistan’s insurgency-hit neighbor Afghanistan. The United States, he underscored “must also help the government of Pakistan defeat Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters hiding in the remote border regions of their country” as they pose threat to democracy in both Pakistan and Afghanistan. In the past year, the Taliban, al-Qaeda and other extremist groups hiding in these regions stepped up their attacks against the Pakistani government to stop the democratic progress in the country, he stated. “Defeating these terrorists and extremists in Pakistan’s interest, they pose a mortal threat to Pakistan’s future as a free and democratic nation,” Bush stressed, while reaffirming US and NATO allies’ cooperation in the country’s anti-terrorism efforts. “Defeating these terrorists and extremists is also Pakistan’s responsibility because every nation has an obligation to govern its territory and make certain that it does not become a safe haven for terror.” “America and its NATO allies will continue to help Pakistan in its efforts to defeat the extremists.” The same terrorists who murdered innocent civilians in Karachi and Islamabad are plotting new attacks against the United States, he said. Bush said extremists in Iraq, Afghanistan and the remote places of Pakistan pose a new challenge for the United States. “They are all theaters in the overall struggle, in all three places extremists are using violence and terror in an attempt to impose their ideology on whole populations, they murder to impose their dark vision of the world. “In all three places America is standing strongly with brave elected leaders and determined reformers and millions of ordinary citizens who seek a future of liberty and justice and tolerance.” He reiterated coalition partners’ firm commitment to defeat terrorism, which he said requires success both militarily and ideologically.