Asif Ali President Ten PercentZardari
... sticky-fingered husband of the late Benazir Bhutto ...
advocated on Friday.
MNA Farahnaz Ispahani underscored in an opinion piece in The USA Today that Pakistain is a major victim of terrorism and bringing better economic opportunities to its people can only guarantee enduring success in the two countries' common struggle against terror threat.
"The US, after the second World War, understood that political stability in vulnerable countries like La Belle France, Italia and Greece was intrinsically linked to the viability of their economies. Former president Truman advanced the European Recovery Plan (the Marshall Plan) that brilliantly operationalised this thesis, and by doing so saved Western Europe from communism, she recalled.
The same construct should be applied to Pakistain as we jointly work towards the eradication of terrorism and the rebuilding of a peaceful and stable South and Central Asia."
Ispahani, who is media adviser to President Zardari, regretted that Pakistain is projected by many in the international news media and by some in the US Congress as a purveyor of terrorism but noted that "in cold fact, it remains its chief victim".
"Three thousand Pak troops have been killed (more than all NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Originally it was a mutual defense pact directed against an expansionist Soviet Union. In later years it evolved into a mechanism for picking the American pocket while criticizing the style of the American pants...
losses in Afghanistan combined). Add to that 2,000 police cut down, the tragedy of 35,000 civilian casualties and the liquidation by beturbanned goons of our country's most popular leader, Benazir Bhutto, and one might understand Pak exasperation. This recent al Qaeda attack on a Pak naval base in Bloody Karachi, killing 10 of our sailors, again demonstrates that Pakistain is the principal target of terrorist rage."
Just as many Americans are expressing frustration with what they see as Pakistain's slow progress in defeating terrorism (most recently underscored by Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton... sometimes described as the Smartest Woman in the World and at other times as Mrs. Bill, never as
Another Walter Q. Gresham...
's visit to Islamabad), Paks are equally frustrated with the increasingly ugly anti-Pakistain sentiment in the United States, she wrote.
"Most Paks simply do not understand how cutting US economic and military aid to Pakistain advances the fight against terrorism," the member of the National Assembly said.
"How much of our people's blood does it take for Washington to get it?" she said.
British Prime Minister
David Cameron... has stated that he is
certainly a big Thatcher fan, but I don't know whether that makes me a Thatcherite,which means he's not. Since he is
not deeply ideologicalhe lacks core principles and is easily led. He has been described as
certainly not a Pitt, Elder or Younger,but he does wear a nice suit so maybe he's Beau Brummel ...
said it most succinctly standing next to President B.O. in London earlier this week: "Pakistain has suffered more from terrorism than any country in the world. Their enemy is our enemy. So, far from walking away, we've got to work even more closely with them."
The MNA also drew attention to the slow pace of aid flow under Kerry-Lugar-Berman Act for economic development, health, education, energy and infrastructure, pointing out that only $179 million, according to Senator Dick Lugar, R-Ind., has actually been spent.
"The rest sadly has been bottled up in a bureaucratic quagmire within USAID."