Pentagon chief says U.S. willing to send troops to help Pakistan

WASHINGTON — The Bush administration is willing to send a small number of U.S. combat troops to Pakistan to help fight the insurgency there if Pakistani authorities asked for such help, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Thursday.

“We remain ready, willing and able to assist the Pakistanis and to partner with them to provide additional training, to conduct joint operations, should they desire to do so,” Gates told a news conference.

Gates said the Pakistani government has not requested any additional assistance in the weeks since al-Qaida and affiliated extremists have intensified their fighting inside Pakistan. And he stressed that the United States would respect the Pakistanis’ judgment on the utility of American military assistance.

“We’re not aware of any proposals that the Pakistanis have made to us at this point,” he said. “This is clearly an evolving issue. And what we have tried to communicate to the Pakistanis and essentially what we are saying here is we are prepared to look at a range of cooperation with them in a number of different areas, but at this point it’s their nickel, and we await proposals or suggestions from them.”

The top American commander in the region, Navy Adm. William J. Fallon, was in Pakistan earlier this week meeting with senior Pakistani officials.

Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who appeared at the news conference with Gates, said he did not know whether Fallon had offered or received any new proposals.

Most of the discussion with the Pakistanis thus far has focused on the possibility of U.S. troops being used to train Pakistani forces, Gates said, but he acknowledged that combat operations might also be included.

“You’re not talking about significant numbers of U.S. troops for the kinds of things if you’re talking about going after al-Qaida in the border area or something like that,” Gates said. “So, in my way of thinking, we’re talking about a very small number of troops, should that happen. And it’s clearly a pretty remote area. But, again, the Pakistani government has to be the judge of this.”