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Wednesday, March 28, 2412 -- 7A

Panetta brushes off negative
opinion polls on Afghanistan

GREGORIO BORGIA/AP
Pope Benedict XVI left, walks with the pastoral staff as he is pictured upon his arrival to celebrate a mas at tevolotion
Square in Santiago de Cuba, Cuba, on Monday.
Pope s calls for freedom in
Cuba are SIVftle ued

Canada reaffirms
commitment to
NATO mission
OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) -
The war in Afghanistan can't
be determined by polls, Defense
Secretary Leon Panetta said yes-
terday, asserting that the U.S.
must continue with its strategy
in the decade-old conflict despite
plummeting American confi-
dence in the war.
Panetta said that there is no
question that the American peo-
ple are tired of war. But, he said,
the public understands the U.S. is
engaged in Afghanistan because
of the attacks on Sept. it, and to
prevent al-Qaida from again find-
ing safe havens there to launch
attacks.
"We cannot fight wars by
polls. If we do that we're in deep
trouble," Panetta told report-
ers at a press conference after a
day of meetings with Canadian
and Mexican defense ministers
here. "We have to operate based
on what we believe is the best
strategy to achieve the mission
that we are embarked on. And
the mission here is to safeguard
our country by insuring that the
Taliban and al-Qaida never again
find a safe haven in Afghanistan."
A New York Times/CBS News
poll found that 69 percent of
those questioned believe the
United States should not be at
war in.Afghanistan, and roughly
the same amount say the fighting
is going either somewhat or very
badly. The numbers are up sharp-
ly from four months ago, when a

bit more than half said the U.S.
should not be at war in Afghani-
stan.
The survey reflects a growing
frustration among the public and
on Capitol Hill with the war, even
as the Obama administration
tries to map out an exit strategy
that would shift the security lead
to the Afghans by mid-2013.
Canadian Defense Minister
Peter MacKay was even more
blunt about the poll, saying that
as one prime minister of Canada
put it: "Polls are for dogs."
"This is our generation's war,
this is a test of perseverance,"
said MacKay, whose country has
about 1,000 troops in Afghani-
stan, largely doing training. "Our
ability to carry through for the
long-term security of not just
Afghanistan but the region and
also the entire world, so there is a
lot at stake. Canada will be there
with our NATO partners."
Panetta said that a lot of lives
have been lost in the war, and
"our commitment must be to
insure that those lives have not
been lost in vain." He said that he
and his military commanders are
convinced that 2011 was a turn-
ing point in the war and that the
levels ofviolence are declining.
Panetta was in Ottawa to
meet with his defense counter-
parts, in what U.S. officials hope
will be a continuing effort to
address shared security threats,
including drug trafficking, cyber
breaches and border issues.
MacKay, Panetta, Gen. Guill-
ermo Galvan Galvan, Mexico's
national defense secretary, and
Adm. Mariano Francisco Saynex
Mendoza, Mexico's Navy secre-

tary, all said that the three coun-
tries must improve their defense
cooperation because many of
the threats that cross the North
American borders. The leaders
agreed to formalize the process
and continue to meet periodically
on the issues.
In other comments Tuesday,
Panetta restated his support for
the F-35 stealth fighter, and said
the U.S. needs it for the future.
But said the U.S. needs to con-
tinue to do as much oversight as
possible over the contract pro-
cess. And MacKay said the fight-
er is still the aircraft that Canada
wants, but there will be careful
monitoring of the program.
Canada's associate defense
minister, Julian Fantino, said
earlier this month that his gov-
ernment could back out of its
multibillion-dollar plan to buy
as many as 65 of the F-35 stealth
fighters from the United States.
The Lockheed Martin-manufac-
tured fighter is the Pentagon's
most expensive weapons pro-
gram and it has been troubled by
schedule delays and cost over-
runs.
In January, Panetta took the
program off the probation which
had been imposed by then-
Defense Secretary Robert Gates
a year earlier because it was
experiencing "significant test-
ing problems." But Panetta has
warned that the troubled pro-
gram is notyet out of the woods.
Ten years in, the total F-35
program cost has jumped from
$233 billion to an estimated $385
billion. Recent estimates suggest
the entire program could exceed
$1trillion over 50 years.

Raul Castro's
government rejects
calls for reform
HAVANA (AP) - Pope Bene-
dict XVI prayed for freedom
and renewal "for the greater
good of all Cubans" before the
nation's patron saint- yester-
day, but the island's communist
leaders quickly rejected the
Roman Catholic leader's appeal
for political change after five
decades of one-party rule.
The exchange came hours
ahead of a 55-minute closed-
door meeting with President
Raul Castro on the pontiff's
second day on the island. Brief
video feeds showed Castro
greeting Benedict at the Presi-
dential Palace and then later
seeing him off.
There was no visit to see Fidel
Castro, though a Vatican spokes-
mon would not rule out the pos-
sibility of a meeting before the
pope departs this afternoon.
Days after dismissing the
Marxist ideology on which the
Cuban system is based, Bene-
dict continued to gently press
themes highly sensitive to
Cubangovernment in his prayer
and short speech at the sanctu-
ary of the Virgin of Charity of
Cobre near the eastern city of

Santiago.
"I have entrusted to the
Mother of God the future of
your country, advancing along
the ways of renewal and hope,
for the greater good of all
Cubans," the pope said. "I have
also prayed to the Virgin for the
needs of those who suffer, of
those who are deprived of free-
dom, those who are separated
from their loved ones or who
are undergoing times of diffi-
culty."
It wasn't long before a top offi-
cial back in Havana responded.
"In Cuba, there will not be
political reform," said Marino
Murillo, Cuba's economic czar
and a vice president.
The pope has kept his lan-
guage lofty, his criticism vague
and open to interpretation, but
Murillo's comments left no room
for doubt, and they were quickly
picked up by pro-government
blogs and on Twitter accounts.
Raul Castro has said that
opening up Cuba's political sys-
tem would inevitably spell doom
for its socialist project since
any alternative party would be
dominated by enemies across
the Florida Straits and beyond.
Alfredo Mesa, a Cuban-
American National Founda-
tion board member whose trip
to, Cuba was organized by the
Miami Archdiocese, said the

government's strong reaction
would reinforce the pope's mes-
sage and the need for change.
"I'd rather have them say
this now than tomorrow," Mesa
said.
During a quiet moment at the
shrine of the Virgin of Charity,
Benedict also prayed for more
Cubans to embrace the faith in
a country that is the least Cath-
olic in Latin America. While
most Cubans are nominally
Catholic, fewer than 10 percent
practice the faith.
The pontiff knelt before
the crowned, wooden statue,
which stood on a covered table
shrouded in blue and white
cloth. Helped by two bishops,
the 84-year-old pontiff rose and
approached the icon, lit a candle
and stood in prayer as a choir
sang hymns.
He called on all Cubans "to
work for justice, to be servants
of charity and to persevere in
the midst of trials."
The pope pointedly referred
to the Virgin by her popular
name, La Mambisa, in a ges-
ture to the many non-Catholics
on the island who nonetheless
venerate the statue as an Afro-
Cuban deity. Mambisa is the
word for the Cuban fighters
who won independence from
Spain at the turn of the last cen-
tury.


Peackeeping force on alert after
coup in Mali overthrows leader
Regional body to to deploy the peacekeepers seized control of the nation
who will be put on standby in million in the wake of a mi
send emissaries to the event that a military inter- at a military camp in the ca
vention is needed, said Kadre last Wednesday.
negotiate Desire Ouedraogo, the president In the chaos that ensued

of 15
utiny
pital
, sol-

Sudan bombs oil field in South Sudan

North's aggression
threatens fragil&
peace agreement
JUBA, South Sudan (AP) -
Sudan's military bombed an oil
field in South Sudan yesterday,
a South Sudan official said, as
a dangerous flare-up in border
violence appeared to scuttle
plans for a presidential summit
between the two countries.
Unity State Minister of Infor-
mation Gideon Gatpan said
Sudan dropped at least three
bombs near oil fields in the town
of Bentiu. Gatpan said the extent
of any damage wasn't immedi-
ately known.
The attack comes one day
after Sudan and South Sudan
clashed in the disputed border
town of Jau, prompting Sudan
togcancel President Omar al-
Bashir's trip to meet with South
Sudan President Salva Kiir next
week.
South Sudan broke away from
Sudan last year, but tensions
between the longtime foes have
remained high.
Among the unresolved issues
is the demarcation of the bor-
der and an agreement to share
oil revenue. South Sudan earlier
this year stopped pumping oil
because it said Sudan - which
owns the pipelines the south's oil
must travel through - was steal-
ingits oil.
Despite the increased vio-
lence, South Sudan held out hope
the presidential meeting could
still happen. South Sudan Min-
ister of Information Barnaba
Benjamin Marial said the south
still expects al-Bashir to attend
the meeting next week, saying
South Sudan had not received an
official cancellation from Khar-
toum.
Marial said the south believes
that "forces of war" in Khartoum

were trying to derail the peace
process, but not al-Bashir him-
self. He said the south would not
take the bait.
"Our president has said clearly
we will not be dragged into a
senseless war," Marial said. "We
will not be dragged into a conflict
with Sudan."
The two countries disputed
which side was the aggressor in
Monday's clash in Jau.
Marial said that Sudanese
troops "without any provocation"
bombed Jau on Monday after-
noon before Sudanese ground
forces and militia fighters moved
in. Marial said that South Sudan
troops repulsed the "invad-
ing forces" back to the town of
Heglig, Sudan. Marial had no
information on troop numbers
involved or casualty figures.
Sudanese authorities say South
Sudan started the fight.
"These attacks are the respon-
sibility of the SPLA and the
South Sudanese government,"
Sudanese Second Vice President
Alhaj Adam Yousif said during an
address on Sudanese state tele-
vision late Monday. "The SPLA
attacks have targeted our oil and
our army." The SPLA is an acro-
nym for South Sudan's military.
Sudan said that the Darfur-
based rebel group Justice and
Equality Movement, or JEM,
fought alongside the SPLA dur-
ing Monday's clash.
The border violence contin-
ued into yesterday near Benitu,
Gatpan said.
"They are hovering and drop-
ping over the northern part of
town in the oil fields, the main
Unity oil fields," Gatpan said. He
said teamswere being sent to the
oil fields to assess the damage.
Yousif said that given Mon-
day's violence, the presidential
visit to sign agreements recent-
ly reached in Ethiopia would
not happen.

"The visit of President Bashir
was tied to good neighborly
relations," said Yousif. "There is
no way for this summit to take
place now."
The cancellation of the sum-
mit effectively halts momentum
in negotiations between the
two countries on issues leftover
from a 2005 peace deal that
saw South Sudan separate from
Sudan last July.
Oil has been the biggest dis-
agreement. The row * prompted
South Sudan to shut down its
oil production in late January,
depriving both countries of a
critical revenue stream.
Talks were stalled until two
weeks ago when the two sides
reached an agreement on citi-
zenship and border demarca-
tion., The agreements - meant
to be signed next Tuesday -
were seen as positive steps.
But there were early signs the
deal might not hold. Both coun-
tries have accused each other
of supporting rebel groups on
either side of the border, though
both sides deny the allegations.
Sudan's Minister of Defense
Abdel-Rahim Mohamed Hus-
sein recently said that any
rebel activity in Sudan's South
Kordofan stafe could cancel the
agreements. Sudan is battling
the rebel SPLM-North, which
until South Sudan's secession
was linked to the south's ruling
party - the SPLA. The south
has said it is not supporting the
SPLM-North.
The cancellation of the presi-
dential summit will set north-
south relations back, said Aly
Verjee, an analyst for the Rift
Valley Institute.
"The new fighting unfortu-
nately trumps progress made in
recent negotiations. It is unsur-
prising that talks have been
canceled given those events,"
he said.

BAMAKO, Mali (AP) - The
body representing nations in
western Africa has suspended
Mali and has put a peacekeep-
ing force on standby in the most
direct threat yet to the junta
that seized control of this nation
in a coup last week.
Alassane Ouattara, the presi-
dent of Ivory Coast who is the
rotating chair of the Economic
Community of West African
States, or ECOWAS, told report-
ers after an emergency meeting
in the capital of Ivory Coast that
Mali's democracy cannot be
abandoned. A delegation of five
African presidents will head to
Mali within the next 48 hours
to try to "restore constitutional
order."
There is no immediate plan

of the ECOWAS commission.
The move suggests the bloc may
consider force if the mutinous
soldiers who overthrew Mali's
democratically elected leader do
not stand down.
"We cannot allow this coun-
try endowed with such precious
democratic instruments, dating
back at least two decades, to
leave history by regressing. It's
why Mali needs to immediately
return its democratic institu-
tions to normal," said Ouattara.
"This position is nonnegotia-
ble."
Already, the United States,
the European Union and France
have cut off all but essential aid,
representing a loss of tens of mil-
lions of dollars. Additional sanc-
tions from the region would be a
further blow to the junta, which

diers stormed the presidential
palace and drove into hiding
President Amadou Toumani
Toure, who was due to step
down next month. Ina matter of
hours, they erased two decades
of democratic rule.
Besides the threat of military
intervention, Mali's neighbors
could suffocate the nation finan-
cially. Many of'the 15 nations
represented on the regional bloc
share the same currency, and
they could together decide to cut
off Mali's supply of cash. Also if
nearby Ivory Coast were to shut
its border, landlocked Mali, a
nation twice the size of Texas
spanning over an expanse of
scrubland, verdant hills and des-
ert dunes, would run out of gaso-
line, which is trucked in from
Ivorian refineries.


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