What to Do About the Pakistan Problem?
Claire, your posts about Pakistan---and the news that Pakistan is being probed for its connection to Osama bin Laden---raise an issue that the U.S. will need to face in the coming days: what should be done about Pakistan, an increasingly Islamist country?
Islamism is not only a part of that country's social fabric, but part of its very founding history. Consider, for instance, how jihad and Islamism played critical roles in that country's origins, as Ziad Haider, an expert in Pakistani history, explains in this article from Defining Ideas: Pakistan, Haider observes, was founded to be "something specifically Muslim though unspecific in every other respect."
That eventually manifested itself violently, in jihad:
Squaring off against India over the disputed territory of Kashmir in the hour of their separation, officers in the Pakistan army involved in the Kashmir operation of 1947–48 invoked jihad to mobilize tribesmen from the frontier and send them to raid and seize Kashmir; the government in turn called on religious scholars to issue supportive fatwas or religious decrees. This was to be the beginning of a longstanding state policy of using religiously motivated proxies to asymmetrically secure political and territorial gains vis-à-vis a seemingly hegemonic India.
Pakistan had ideologically destructive tendencies from the very beginning, so how do you undo something like that? The "solutions" that immediately come to mind don't really seem to be solutions at all---war? more aid? less aid? nation building? What, if anything, will turn the tide of Islamism in that country?
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Jan '11
Re: What to Do About the Pakistan Problem?
There are more Pakistanis (Paks) than Russians. They have nuclear weapons. They occupy an important location. And they're not going anywhere. Like it or not, we have to deal with them. They're like the Saudis. They do just enough to straddle the line between being an ally and an enemy.
Usually in that situation, you play tit-for-tat. It becomes a transactional relationship. You give us something, we'll give you something. But it isn't going to be an open-ended friendship, by any means.
Aug '10
Re: What to Do About the Pakistan Problem?
I think if the last ten years have taught us anything, it's that it is prohibitively difficult to change the culture and institutions of another country. As I suggested in my own post, we need to decrease our dependence on Pakistan by declaring victory in Afghanistan and going home. It would probably also behoove us to severely curtail both immigration and temporary visas from Pakistan.
Jun '10
Re: What to Do About the Pakistan Problem?
The one positive factor in Pakistan is that the ruling elites were educated in the West. Benazir Bhutto, for example, was educated in Britain as were many from her social class. Pakistani elites know that they rule over a nation of savages. Since genuine democracy seems beyond this nation, America's best interests would probably be served by a military stongman. Keeping a lid on the place is about all we can hope for.
Jul '10
Re: What to Do About the Pakistan Problem?
Emily, are you back in the fold, or did you just drop in for a quick chat?
Re: What to Do About the Pakistan Problem?
Yeah but look what happened to her!
Re: What to Do About the Pakistan Problem?
Getting back in the fold : )
Jul '10
Re: What to Do About the Pakistan Problem?
Emily Esfahani Smith, Ed.
Getting back in the fold : ) · May 3 at 7:26am
Welcome home.
Re: What to Do About the Pakistan Problem?
I knew Benazir slightly at Oxford long, long ago. We debated against one another at the Oxford Union Society. The motion was "Resolved, this House will impeach President Nixon?" I wonder what percentage of the Pakistani elite is today educated in the fashion she was. And more to the point: what proportion of the Pakistani officer corps is so educated? I fear that the military there -- when it opted to play the jihadi card in Afghanistan against the Russians and in Kashmir against India -- made a Faustian bargain. We have a certain amount of leverage. I doubt that we could hope for more.
Mar '11
Re: What to Do About the Pakistan Problem?
I see Pakistan is embarrassed by it's Intelligence failure to notice that Mr Bin Laden was living about 1000 yards from their version of West Point, in a retirement community for the Western-educated Military elite - hahaha.
Re: What to Do About the Pakistan Problem?
For a decade, we've justified our partnership with a deeply problematic Pakistani regime on the grounds that they were functional allies in the War on Terror. Now Leon Panetta tells us that Pakistan was kept out of the loop on the Bin Laden operation because of the fear that elements within the goverment would tip Bin Laden off. This is not how even the most fair-weather of friends behave -- certainly not when we're dealing with the foremost target in the war where we're ostensibly partners.
Pakistan's jihadist elements and its nuclear capacity prevent us from washing our hands of the situation entirely. But it's certainly time to tighten the leash.
Aug '10
Re: What to Do About the Pakistan Problem?
Allen West is calling for an end to aid to Pakistan.
Also, Reihan Salam says that our alliance with Pakistan is effectively over.
Oct '10
Re: What to Do About the Pakistan Problem?
usually, i'd call for the military to take over. but the military (at least some of them) have an alliance with the taliban, right?
so a jihadist assassinated bhutto. but the jihadist have ties with elements of the ISI? uh oh...
Oct '10
Re: What to Do About the Pakistan Problem?
what wretchard fernandez said:
Ironically the circumstances surrounding the death of Osama Bin Laden tends to confirm the theory that terrorism, rather than being a spontaneous meme that floats above the planet, is in fact deeply rooted in the intelligence agencies and regimes of certain states. Thus, neither Hamas nor Hezbollah are creations of some kind of rage any more than than September 11 was wholly the result of some kind of amorphous resentment. Osama Bin Laden had backers; people with uniforms, ranks and the resources of bureaucracies behind them. Those who believe that the War on Terror is nothing but a law enforcement problem must ask themselves whether it is really rather larger than that.