i thought that was brilliant, especially the bit about the rapture. i am continuously disconcerted by seeing serious looking businessmen in suits reading the rapture books, and that has had a real political impact, at least as much as islamic "fundamentalists" have had in selecting the government of pakistan!
however, given that believers in the rapture are politically more powerful today, i agree this was a rather unwise press conference to give, in terms of the officers' own careers. On Tue, 2008-03-11 at 06:37 +0530, ss wrote: > http://www.thebulletin.org/columns/hugh-gusterson/20080205.html > John G. Libb of the Washington Times asked if Americans were wrong to be > concerned about Pakistan's nuclear stockpile given the rise of Islamic > fundamentalism in Pakistan. Colonel Zhalot replied: "Millions of Americans > believe that these are the last days and that they will be raptured to heaven > at the end of the world. You have a president who describes Jesus as his > favorite philosopher, and one of the last remaining candidates in your > presidential primaries is a preacher who doesn't believe in evolution. Many > Pakistanis worry that the United States is being taken over by religious > extremists who believe that a nuclear holocaust will just put the true > believers on a fast track to heaven. We worry about a nutcase U.S. president > destroying the world to save it." > > U.S. diplomats in Pakistan declined comment. >
