How Will President Obama's New Policy Tackle Terror?
Pakistanis are happy with increased aid, but concerned about more drone attacks.
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, March 27, 2009 — -- The political cartoon in the Pakistani newspaper Dawn perhaps said everything that Pakistanis wanted to say about a new American policy toward Pakistan and Afghanistan.
A CIA drone flies above the tribal areas, but instead of firing missiles it waters a bed of terrorists. The message: The CIA and the military campaigns here help grow the militancy.
Across this troubled country, where the safest of places -- a mosque -- wasn't safe today, there is a hope that President Obama's new strategy for Pakistan and Afghanistan replaces firepower with brainpower.
For years Pakistanis and Afghans -- particularly the Pashtuns living along the border -- have been looking for their lives to improve, their children's education to increase and their vision of the future to change.
And so they latched onto Obama's call today for a tripling of economic aid to Pakistan.
"A campaign against extremism will not succeed with bullets or bombs alone," Obama said. "Al Qaeda offers the people of Pakistan nothing but destruction. We stand for something different."
