The 7:30 Report with Dave Kilcullen
Pakistan an Enormous Risk to Global Stability: Kilcullen – Australian Broadcasting Corporation intereview with transcript and extended interview video.
One of the world’s top counter-insurgency experts, former Australian soldier David Kilcullen has recently warned in a blistering submission to the United States congress, that Pakistan now represents an enormous risk to global stability. He is urging for a fresh approach from America its dealings with Pakistan.
I think the good thing about it is that we’ve finally started to see some serious concern within Pakistan itself about the threat of Taliban militancy. If you were looking two or three months ago I don’t think people took it as seriously as they do now, and I think the difference is that Pakistan settled areas, around Brunei and Swat which are not really part of tribal areas, have now been threatened by the Taliban and people are starting to take it seriously. That’s the good side.
The bad side is I think there’s a long way to go in terms of the non-military aspects of this. The military part of it is like a sharp wedge being pushed into the Swat Valley, and essentially that’s driving the militants elsewhere and we’re going to start to see a spill over of violence, I think, into the rest of Pakistan as that continues…