Put simply, Pakistan represents the first realistic prospect for a jihadist movement to capture a nation-state, or at the very least to control large parts of it. It would, in effect, mean that militants would have something approaching a mini-state within the country where the central government's power and influence would be non-existent, and from which they could plan and launch attacks beyond its borders. And Pakistan is not just any nation-state at threat from militant groups, but one that has nuclear weapons, a large population and economic resources; one that borders a vulnerable failed state in Afghanistan where tens of thousands of Nato forces are stationed; and one that also has as its neighbours two emerging economic superpowers, China and India. What is more, Pakistan has a long coastline open to the most economically important stretch of waterway in the world, the Gulf, from which hundreds of tankers supply oil-hungry economies. It is a nightmare scenario from which no country is immune. None of us will escape the consequences of a situation where large parts of Pakistan are politically, militarily and economically controlled by jihadists.
From Rageh Omaar at Telegraph.co.uk
3 comments:
You don't regard Afghanistan prior to 2002 as a nation state? Or you don't regard the Taliban as jihadist?
On the 7.30 Report last week, there was discussion of the huge amounts Macquarie Bank executives have received and also a segment about the desperately poor in Lahore, Pakistan.
One Macquarie Bank exec managed to score $24 million in one year! A father in Lahore has taken his 11 year old son out of school because he can't afford it and has him working for 40 cents per day, for eleven hours work! Dad, who drives a motorised rickshaw earns $4 per day.
What an obscene juxtaposition!
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/oct/12/obamas-kenya-ghosts/
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