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Murtha: Taliban in Pakistan is biggest threat

The greatest threat facing the U.S. is the possibility that the government of Pakistan will fall and the Taliban will somehow gain control of that nation’s nuclear weapons, the chairman of the House defense appropriations subcommittee said.

If that happened, Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., said he would recommend military strikes against Pakistan’s missile sites to prevent a launch.

Murtha said his discussions with key White House, defense and intelligence officials lead him to believe that the Obama administration also has Pakistan at the top of its list of threats, ahead of Iran and North Korea.

In fact, Murtha downplayed the threat from North Korea, saying he didn’t believe it would launch missile attacks against anyone.

Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, “has great confidence in the military in Pakistan” to keep control of nuclear weapons, Murtha said, although he added that most military officers tend to be optimistic — often overly so — in their assessments.

“The military has often been mistaken, to be polite,” Murtha said Wednesday in a breakfast meeting with defense reporters.

“What I worry about the most is if the Taliban were to destabilize the [Pakistani] government,” he said. “We think we know where the weapons are, and we have to be prepared if it goes the wrong way to destabilize these sites.”

Regarding the ongoing military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, Murtha expressed confidence that U.S. combat forces would be out of Iraq soon, but he urged against a big buildup of troops in Afghanistan.

Murtha said his one criticism of the Obama withdrawal plan from Iraq was that it called for leaving 30,000 to 40,000 troops behind as trainers and support personnel.

“My goal is to get them all out,” he said.

He doesn’t want to leave even U.S. trainers to work with the Iraqi military of fear they would be vulnerable to attacks.

On Afghanistan, Murtha warned that the U.S. needs to be careful about public opinion there and to not be seen as occupiers.

“More troops are not the answer,” he said, suggesting that what is needed instead is more aid and relief workers to help rebuild the country.