Former Pakistani President Blasts Obama For Directing Attention At India

By Samira Sadeque

Former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf recently blasted President Obama for steering attention towards India instead of Pakistan, who is a “supposed” strategic partner that is currently suffering in many aspects. Musharraf also expressed bitterness over an apparent lack of U.S. support, saying that Pakistan is strictly convinced that the U.S will abandon them, just as it did in the past.

“It’s a strategic relationship of great importance, indeed, in words,” Musharraf said. “But, in action one would expect more to demonstrate this strategic importance that Pakistan is enjoying in that region.” 

Musharraf referred to the twelve year era between 1989 and 2001 as “twelve years of disaster” saying Pakistan was “totally abandoned by the United States.”

According to Musharraf, this era was a low-point in U.S.-Pakistani relations that was compounded by nearly four million Afghan refugees. Musharraf added that Pakistanis felt they were “used and abandoned” by the United States. They felt “betrayed,” a feeling he said they harbor even today.

“It’s important today when we are trying to take a decision whether to stay or quit, are we again to be abandoned? A question in the mind of every pakistani,” he said, adding that Pakistanis are seeking for assurance from him that the United States will not again “use and abandon” the nation that has been caught within a web of war, political instability and, of late, natural disaster.

In Ohio, Obama Touts Merits Of Stimulus

By Robert Hune-Kalter
Talk Radio News Service

President Barrack Obama visited Columbus, Ohio on Friday to mark a milestone of the Recovery Act, which he signed into law over one year ago. Later this summer, the 10,000th road project funded by the law will commence in Columbus’s downtown district and, according to the administration, is expected to generate 300 jobs.

After touring the site of the project, Obama made brief remarks, comparing the planned road improvements to those two centuries earlier.

“Our first nationally funded highway, the National Road, was extended across Ohio, bringing a generation of settlers west to this new frontier, paving the way for the automobile that would transform our landscape,” he said.

Columbus small businesses figure to be big beneficiaries of the stimulus later this year. The administration says they will receive between $44 and $53 million worth of Recovery Act funds. In addition, eleven million dollars will be provided to them in Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grants.

“It is with that vision of a brighter future for this city and for the country that we begin this project, and I am looking forward to seeing all that you achieve in the years and months to come,” Obama added.