Observing that US should have put more effort in driving out al Qaeda militants from Pakistan, an influential lawmaker has said the change of guard in the country could result in terrorists “digging deeper” and being less reachable by the American forces.Al-Qaeda has a huge presence in Pakistan and Afghanistan and the Bush administration failed to contain militancy in these two countries, Senator Jack Reed said “You have a new political dynamic in Pakistan that may result in Al Qaida leadership digging deeper in and being less reachable by our forces,” the Democrat from the Rhode Island said.Reed is a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee which will question American commander in Iraq General David Petraeus and the top envoy in Baghdad Ryan Crocker in Capitol Hill in four back-to-back sessions spreading over two days.Reed along with his colleague from Massachusetts Senator John Kerry gave more than just indications of the tough line of questioning that Petraeus and Crocker.“I just came back from Afghanistan and Pakistan, where there is a huge challenge by the Taliban and a reconstituted Al Qaida. And we’re putting a pittance into those countries compared to what is going into Iraq, where there is not the kind of threat with respect to the war on terror, as a whole,” Kerry said.
