I am afraid that I agree with you wholeheartedly on your last there, Bill
. The signs have been in the wind for the past few years that 'democratic' governent in Pakistan has thinned to a shadow of what it should be and that extreme elements are holding more and more sway over certain areas of the country. Very frightening to see in what is, at the end of the day, a 'nuclear' nation.
I am no expert, but one thing that permeates my thoughts with regard to Pakistan is that they need to drop the bellicosity with India and turn their attentions to their real enemy, which is internal. Many do not know that India and Pakistan have had a sort of low-level war going on for decades, mainly over control of disputed areas in Kashmir. Both nations are nuclear, both are not really wanting to go to war with each other, and both need to divert their energies to other threats (India is involved with several disputes with China, just as Japan is; China is becoming very pushy lately). Pakistan should kiss and make up with India, sign a non-aggression treaty or pact, and turn their powerful military on their radical internal element. That also means a purse of the radical members of their own military.
That last bit may prove trickiest, if not utterly impossible, as the military may upend the elected government if anyone meddles with their internal structure. They're infiltrated through and through with radical Islamists, as I understand it.
Many years ago, I worked for a month or so with a software engineer from Pakistan. Over the course of time, we engaged in small talk about our homes and he told me that the average Pakistani hates Americans (this was a decade before 9/11 or world-wide Islamist terrorism). His point of view was that the 'average' Pakistani lived in small villages, not modern cities, and they only knew what they were taught. Reading and writing were taught only for the purpose of reading the Koran; anything else was considered immoral. The Imams taught hatred against America, and the average Pakistani accepted it as fact, they knew nothing else, and had no access to television, radio, or news from the outside world that would contradict it. It would be like a poor child in the USA during the 1800s being told that Satan was real and lived in Chicago. What child would not believe that if told it by parents and teachers? He went on to point out the dichotomy in Pakistan between the rural and the metropolitan areas. In the cities, people are educated, they have jobs, they want democracy, they are moderate and accepting of the notion of other religions and beliefs, they want peace because all they really want is to live a safe and comfortable life, have a shot at success, and raise their families. But there is not much in-between the city people and the country people in terms of gradation. It's all one extreme or the other, little in the middle.
Sadly, in the USA, we're experiencing that as well; but not due to the divides of rich and poor, or access to communication versus being kept in the dark. No, our poverty of thought is self-imposed. Some of us see what happened to this brave little girl in Pakistan and the first thought we have is that "Muslims are not very nice people." There is plenty of media information out there showing that this is not the case, but they won't or can't accept it. Their darkness is self-imposed. Sadder, I think.
