Sharif says Pakistan should reconsider support for U.S. war on terror

[dipsydoodle]

Source: Reuters

(Reuters) - Nawaz Sharif, seen as the front-runner in Pakistan's election race, said the country should reconsider its support for the U.S. war on Islamist militancy and suggested that he was in favour of negotiations with the Taliban.

Pakistan backed American efforts to stamp out global militancy after the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States and was rewarded with billions of dollars in U.S. aid.

But many Pakistanis have grown resentful, saying thousands of Pakistani soldiers have died fighting "America's war".

Sharif, a religious conservative who is hoping to become prime minister for a third time after next Saturday's election, said the Pakistani military's U.S.-backed campaign against the Taliban was not the best way to defeat the insurgency.

Read more: http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/05/05/uk-pakistan-election-sharif-idUKBRE94401I20130505

[bemildred]

1. Can this marriage be saved? nt

[Comrade Grumpy]

2. Dropping hundreds of missiles on a country doesn't make you very popular.

Although it does serve the aims of the forever war on terror by aiding the recruitment of the next generation of militants.

[Leontius]

3. It is time to re-evaluate who the friends of the US are and realign our

foreign policy and aid decisions.

[closeupready]

4. Oh bullshit. Sharif is not a 'religious conservative'.

To the contrary, he's a modernist, and Western-oriented.