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“From Abbottabad to Worse”

Hitchens’ comments on the Pakistani response to the raid on Abbottabad and the US culpability in the current state of Pakistani affairs. He writes, “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.” He includes a very well written connection between the cultural state of Pakistan and the dysfunctional yet dependent relationship with the US, “There’s absolutely no mystery to the ‘Why do they hate us?’ question, at least as it arises in Pakistan. They hate us because they owe us, and are dependent upon us. The two main symbols of Pakistan’s pride— its army and its nuclear program— are wholly parasitic on American indulgence and patronage.”

A good thought near the end of the essay: Post the Navy Seal raid on Abbottabad. “General Ashfaq Kayani, head of the Pakistani…said that any similar American action ought to warrant a ‘review’ of the whole relationship between the two countries. How pitiful it is that a Pakistani and not an American should have been the first (and so far the only) leader to say those necessary things."

Who is this sign for?

New Learning: Salman Rushdie has an “upsettingly brilliant psycho-profile” of Pakistan in his 1983 novel Shame.

New Word: mendicant = given to begging