From Lalit K Jha
Washington, Jun 16 (PTI) Departure of Robert Gates as the US Defence Secretary, after more than four and half years of leading the Pentagon, is bad news for Pakistan, a top US counter-terror analyst has said.
"The departure of Gates and the arrival of Panetta who's going to bring with him the new CIA view I think is bad news for Pakistan," Bruce Riedel of the prestigious Brookings Institute, said last week participating in a discussion at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based think tank.
Riedel added that this will leave the State Department as the principle defender of engagement with Pakistan and the state department, because it is the State Department, argues in favour of engagement with everybody. "That's what diplomats are supposed to do.