Hope?

Editor,

If there is any hope at all of stabilizing Afghanistan and Pakistan, it is in diplomacy with Pakistan that succeeds in establishing a joint effort to provide security to civil society in that part of the world. This is the right course, no question about it, but the fact is that the interests of very few people in that region align with those of the United States.

On paper Pakistani free trade zones with sweatshop workers making billions for American corporations looks as great to the American ruling class as the privatization of Iraq did. Unfortunately Pakistanis' hatred for India -- and thus their willingness to accept this project in exchange for supporting American military aims in the region -- is quite beyond Americans' ability to comprehend it. And if not Islamic extremism then at least Sharia law, not corporate capitalism, is central to Pakistanis' understanding of themselves.

The U.S.A. is mired in a swamp of two-faced friends and bitter enemies of the U.S.A. Thus, our government has to figure out what we are doing there and what if anything is possible. The Keystone Kops making the rounds on the Sunday TV talk shows this week inspired anything but confidence. Oh yes, they are convinced we should be there, but the reasons they gave are gibberish.

As far as I and many Americans are concerned the issue is Pakistan's nukes. If they didn't have them, our troops could all come home tomorrow -- assuming the war profiteers would allow it -- and let the inhabitants of that area resolve their own civil war.

But those nukes are just what Osama ordered, and there is at least as much sympathy for him in the Pakistani military as there is for us. We don't know where all of those nukes are, and Secretary Gates, offering no evidence, assures us they are secure. Let's change our objective in Afghanistan from disrupting blah blah blah to finding and destroying Pakistan's nukes. Once that is done, our military can withdraw immediately and entirely from this misbegotten imperial adventure.

re: "Pakistan and the War" (12/8/2009)