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Pakistan, S Arabia may pose bigger problems than Iraq, Afghanistan

Daily Times Monitor

CANBERRA: Security collapse in Pakistan and Saudi Arabia could pose far greater problems for the west than either Iraq or Afghanistan, a former US general said on Tuesday, according to the Australian Associated Press news agency.

General John Abizaid, who headed US Central Command from 2003 until retiring in 2007, said the problem was that Pakistan had nuclear weapons while Saudi Arabia had about a quarter of the world’s oil reserves.

Speaking at an Australian Defence College and Royal United Services Institute security seminar, he said the two biggest problems were not necessarily Afghanistan and Iraq. “They may very well be Pakistan and Saudi Arabia,” he said. “The two countries are struggling with the security implications that they have to deal with in regard to their external and internal security problems and, in the case of Pakistan, with the fact that they happen to be a nuclear state.”

“A meltdown in the security apparatus of those two countries could have implications for us that make the current situation look easy.” General Abizaid said both countries’ administrations were now much more resilient against the extremist threat than they were a few years ago. “The challenge now is to figure out how to move the campaign against terror forward in a way that does not inadvertently embolden, enhance or empower the extremist cause,” he said.

“One of the reasons that the ideology of Bin Laden isn’t growing in Pakistan and Saudi Arabia is because it doesn’t offer anybody anything. It’s very dark, very narrow and very negative and people understand that.”

General Abizaid said he had great respect for the valour, professionalism and competence of Australia’s small but highly trained defence forces. “You should make sure you understand that you do matter and that we can’t continue to operate without our friends,” he said. “We need friends like you and hope you understand that this fight we are engaged in means that in the long run you need to invest in your own security and invest in the professionalism of your security forces.”

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