The following is from The New Yorker of 16 May
and well describes the failed state of Pakistan.
The other failed states which America has tried
to 'help' in more recent years are Iraq and
Afghanistan. The state which America helped the
most -- because it ruled it totally for a number
of years -- was Japan. That's not so much a
failed state as a stalled state (it stalled when
America clobbered it with the Plaza 'Accord' in
the 1980s) -- to which state America is highly
likely to become itself unless Obama can somehow
sort out its budget this summer. This is probably
the last opportunity he -- or America -- will. It
may even become a failed state in future years if
the only really important assets it presently has
-- its scientific researchers -- are recruited
elsewhere (just as America recruited the cream of
European science in the last century).
Keith
<<<<
THE DOUBLE GAME
Lawrence Wright
It's the end of the Second World War, and the United States is deciding what to
do about two immense, poor, densely populated
countries in Asia. America chooses
one of the countries, becoming its benefactor.
Over the decades, it pours billions
of dollars into that country's economy, training
and equipping its military and
its intelligence services. The stated goal is to
create a reliable ally with strong
institutions and a modern, vigorous democracy.
The other country, meanwhile, is
spurned because it forges alliances with America's enemies.
The country not chosen was India, which 'tilted'
toward the Soviet Union during
the Cold War. Pakistan became America's protégé,
firmly supporting its fight to
contain Communism. The benefits that Pakistan
accrued from this relationship were
quickly apparent: in the nineteen-sixties, its
economy was an exemplar. India, by
contrast, was a byword for basket case. Fifty
years then went by. What was the result
of this social experiment?
India has become the state that we tried to create in Pakistan. It is a rising
economic star, militarily powerful and
democratic, and it shares American interests.
Pakistan, however, is one of the most
anti-American countries in the world, and
a covert sponsor of terrorism. Politically and
economically, it verges on being
a failed state. And, despite Pakistani avowals to
the contrary, America's worst
enemy, Osama bin Laden, had been hiding there for
years - in strikingly comfortable
circumstances - before U.S. commandos finally
tracked him down and killed him, on
May 2nd."
>>>>
Keith Hudson, Saltford, England http://allisstatus.wordpress.com/2011/05/
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