A key Democratic Congressman, Gary Ackerman, has urged greater US co-operation with Pakistan and its people as a noted American writer Thursday observed that President Bush's meeting with Prime Minister Gilani on July 28 symbolises great significance in terms of Washington cementing ties with the new democratic government.
Opposing the notion of US forces' presence on the Pakistani soil, Ackerman said, it is not the answer to the problem of violent extremism along Pakistan-Afghanistan border.
The US forces being on the ground will only make the situation worse, Ackerman said, according to an American newspaper. The United States must step up equipment supplies and share more intelligence information with the forces that patrol the treacherous, semiautonomous region between the two countries.
"What we have to do is empower the military," said Ackerman, chairman of the House Subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia. "They need help from us to do the job themselves," the New York congressman told Newsday. He pointed out that the US administration should have forged relations with 160 million people of the country instead of focusing on president of the country.