US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton's bold and truthful statement before the House of Appropriations Committee (April 24) shows her remarkable courage and guts to admit that the US was to blame for the creation of Pakistani Taliban in the proxy war against the Soviets in Afghanistan and thus creating militancy in Pakistan.

After the Soviets were defeated, leading to the breakup of the USSR, the US just left Pakistan to clean up the mess of Stinger missiles, Kalashnikovs, land mines et al, which now are in the hands of the present-day Taliban whom the US wants Pakistan to eliminate.

I sincerely hope that like Ms Clinton, others too in President Obama's government would understand what their secretary of state has so courageously admitted, rather than saying “we want you to do more”.

SAUD SIDDIQUI
Karachi

(II)

US Secretary of States Hillary Clinton admits that her country created Taliban and abandoned Pakistan to deal with them (April 25).

On the second day of a two-day Congressional hearing on the Obama administration's foreign policy, she conceded that the Taliban problem had plagued Pakistan and also went on to say that the militants the US is fighting in the region today were funded by the US 20 years ago.

She was also very generous to say that the Americans had to take responsibility 'to some extent' for having contributed to the problem. The admission of creation of a trouble is enough for fixing the entire responsibility of shooting it.

The crux of the matter is that Pakistan has suffered a lot for contributing to a proxy war by US-trained and fully equipped Taliban against the Soviets. This followed US invasion of Afghanistan, resulting in the huge influx of civil population, as well as Taliban, into Pakistan. The country was rewarded with drug and gun culture, the unending acts of terrorism and top of all the insurgency-like situation that threatens its very existence, to name a few.

The United States must act to compensate Pakistans socio-economic and strategic losses as a top priority for restoring its credibility in the eyes of the Pakistanis. Otherwise, they will have every reason to believe that the United States has some other designs.

EHTESHAM SIDDIQUI
Islamabad