It is clear why we have an "alliance" with the vile "society" that is Saudi Arabia. Oil.
But what about Pakistan? I've long wondered why we continue to put that horrid country in the camp of our "allies". The only argument I've seen for keeping the "alliance" is that if we don't, then the real crazies could take power. In other words, things could get even worse.
Christopher Hitchens skewers that in his latest Vanity Fair article, "From Abbotabad to worse".
Excerpt...
If we ever ceased to swallow our pride, so I am incessantly told in Washington, then the Pakistani oligarchy might behave even more abysmally than it already does, and the situation deteriorate even further. This stale and superficial argument ignores the awful historical fact that, each time the Pakistani leadership did get worse, or behave worse, it was handsomely rewarded by the United States. We have been the enablers of every stage of that wretched state’s counter-evolution, to the point where it is a serious regional menace and an undisguised ally of our worst enemy, as well as the sworn enemy of some of our best allies. How could it be “worse” if we shifted our alliance and instead embraced India, our only rival in scale as a multi-ethnic and multi-religious democracy, and a nation that contains nearly as many Muslims as Pakistan? How could it be “worse” if we listened to the brave Afghans, like their former intelligence chief Amrullah Saleh, who have been telling us for years that we are fighting the war in the wrong country?
Read it all. [pdf here]
But what about Pakistan? I've long wondered why we continue to put that horrid country in the camp of our "allies". The only argument I've seen for keeping the "alliance" is that if we don't, then the real crazies could take power. In other words, things could get even worse.
Christopher Hitchens skewers that in his latest Vanity Fair article, "From Abbotabad to worse".
Excerpt...
If we ever ceased to swallow our pride, so I am incessantly told in Washington, then the Pakistani oligarchy might behave even more abysmally than it already does, and the situation deteriorate even further. This stale and superficial argument ignores the awful historical fact that, each time the Pakistani leadership did get worse, or behave worse, it was handsomely rewarded by the United States. We have been the enablers of every stage of that wretched state’s counter-evolution, to the point where it is a serious regional menace and an undisguised ally of our worst enemy, as well as the sworn enemy of some of our best allies. How could it be “worse” if we shifted our alliance and instead embraced India, our only rival in scale as a multi-ethnic and multi-religious democracy, and a nation that contains nearly as many Muslims as Pakistan? How could it be “worse” if we listened to the brave Afghans, like their former intelligence chief Amrullah Saleh, who have been telling us for years that we are fighting the war in the wrong country?
Read it all. [pdf here]
