Another Day, Another Obama Administration Dodge on Af-Pak Benchmarks

For the second day in a row, here’s State Department spokesman Robert Wood eliding the issue of how to conditionalize aid to Pakistan and Afghanistan. He’s asked about President Asif Ali Zardari’s blessing of the Swat peace deal with the Taliban:

Well, look, you know, our views on the whole issue of Swat are well known. And, you know, we believe that extremists, violent extremists, need to be confronted, and we’ve made that very clear. We’re very concerned about parliament’s decision, the decision of parliament yesterday with regard to the question of, you know, women’s rights. We’re going to continue to have discussions with the Government of Pakistan on these issues. But I just want to reiterate the point that our view is violent extremists need to be confronted, and the Government of Pakistan is aware of our concerns about this issue.

If only there were some kind of mechanism for accountability that the Obama administration could employ here.