Bush: Pakistan made America more secure

Can the US manage two distinct military campaigns at the same time? That appears to be the question asked by those whom feel that the Iraq war was a distraction from the war against al Qaeda and Islamic terrorism at large. I've been contesting that our rationale for going into Iraq had nothing to do with terrorism or al Qaeda per se, in the larger picture it made sense to topple the Hussein regime. The fact is that while we've been busy rebuilding Afghanistan and attempting to settle Iraq, we have been waging a fairly successful campaign against al Qaeda world wide. Our biggest ally in this endeavor is a country you'd least suspect; Pakistan. On March 8th, President George W. Bush finally gave President Musharraf the acknowledgement his country so richly deserves.

[World News]: WASHINGTON, March 8 : President George W.Bush says Pakistan has made the United States "more secure" by arresting extremists.

Pakistani newspapers reported that in his speech delivered at the National Defense University in Washington, Bush mentioned Pakistan as one of the key allies in the war against terrorism.

"We're more secure because Pakistani forces captured more than 100 extremists across the country last year, including operatives who were plotting attacks against the United States," he said.

Bush said Britain arrested an al-Qaida operative who had provided detailed reports on possible American targets to senior al Qaeda leaders.Bush also cited efforts by Germany, the Philippines and Poland for catching al-Qaida suspects.

"In three and a half years, the United States and our allies have waged a campaign of global scale -- from the mountains of Afghanistan, to the border regions of Pakistan, to the Horn of Africa, to the islands of the Philippines, to the plains of North Central Iraq."