US Senator John I was in Vietnam, you knowKerry
Senator-for-Life from Massachussetts, the Senate's current
foreign policy expert, filling the vacated wingtips of Joe Biden...
on Monday called Pakistain and the United States "strategic partners with a common enemy" as he sought to ease distrust in the wake of the killing of the late Osama bin Laden
... who sleeps with the fishes...
.
Kerry also said that US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
... sometimes described as the Smartest Woman in the World and at other times as Mrs. Bill, never as
Another Tallyrand...
will soon announce plans to visit Pakistain.
Kerry said he had held "constructive conversations" with Pakistain's leaders but reiterated "grave concerns" over the presence in Pakistain of the al Qaeda terror chief and sanctuaries of US adversaries in Afghanistan.
"More importantly I explained that I am here with the backing of President (Barack) Obama, (US) ambassador (to Pakistain Cameron) Munter and their team to find a way to rebuild the trust between our two countries," he said.
"We must never lose sight of this essential fact. We are strategic partners with a common enemy in terrorism and extremism."Both of our countries have sacrificed... so much that it just wouldn't make sense to see this relationship broken or abandoned," he added.
Kerry said Pakistain had "recommitted to find more ways to work against the common threat of terrorism" and to increase cooperation on intelligence sharing and operations to "defeat the enemies that we face".
In one tangible, concrete achievement, Kerry said Pakistain would return on Tuesday the tail of a helicopter. Navy SEALs destroyed the chopper during the operation that got bin Laden after a hard landing.
Pakistain, which has lost thousands of soldiers and civilians in the fight against homegrown Taliban and to Al-Qaeda-inspired kabooms, said the allies would work together on future high-value targets in Pakistain.
Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani joined forces with Kerry to say that the two countries now needed to rebuild trust.
"It was the need of the hour that Pakistain and US should rebuild the trust and confidence between their governments and institutions," his office said in a statement released after his talks with Kerry.
There have been heightened security fears in Pakistain since the bin Laden operation and the killing of a Saudi diplomat in a hail of gunfire Monday was the second attack on Saudi interests in Bloody Karachi in less than a week.
Last Wednesday, drive-by assailants threw two grenades at the consulate in Bloody Karachi in what officials said could have been a reaction to Saudi-born bin Laden's death.