Mullen: 'Absolutely no provision' for troops in Pakistan

There is "absolutely no provision or discussion" of putting any U.S. troops in Pakistan, Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, stressed Monday.

The only troops permitted to cross that border -- which has become especially dangerous over the past few years -- are support personnel, who are already training Pakistan's military at the request of its leaders, Mullen told PBS's "News Hour."

Ultimately, that means few, if any, of the 30,000 new troops the White House announced it would begin deploying to Afghanistan will join Pakistan in its fight to root out al-Qaeda and Taliban forces taking advantage of unpoliced "safe havens" on the border, or so the admiral's remarks seemed to suggest.

"There [on the border], we have got troops, a small number of troops, training, at the Pakistani government and Pakistani military request, as they address this fight, but outside that kind of training support, no other troops," Mullen said, emphasizing Pakistan's sovereignty.

"I look at this, strategically, over the long run that it's the pressure brought from the east, if you will, on the western border of Pakistan and the pressure in Afghanistan that will eventually allow us to get at and eliminate those safe havens," he added.

Skeptics of the president's new Afghan troop surge have grumbled since last week that the U.S. military is heading to the wrong country.

Al-Qaeda operatives, they say, collude mostly in Waziristan and the other tribal areas of Pakistan, where the state's central government has little authority or legitimacy. Moreover, even an impressive set of victories for the U.S military in Afghanistan could drive insurgents over the border, overwhelming Pakistan's forces.

The White House, however, has maintained Pakistan is more than capable of addressing its own internal security concerns. Mullen, in particular, also said Monday the United States was best able to address Pakistan's instability by committing in earnest to Afghanistan.

"I also believe that Pakistan's future will in great part be driven by what kind of country Afghanistan is, stable or unstable, and that a stable, supportive government in Afghanistan will be very helpful to how Pakistan looks at its future and the decisions it makes," Mullen said.

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