An Interesting Perspective on Pakistani-American Relations

Nathan Fox-Helser, who is both a member of Wake Forest Young Americans for Liberty and a new author at the left-libertarian blog Rethinking the State, wrote a paper on American foreign policy in Pakistan for a political science class he took this semester.  I've been working on building the Wake Forest YAL Wiki recently as a tool to be used by future chapters, and I got Nathan to send me the paper, which I converted into a wiki article.  The paper contains an interesting analysis of the past and current situation in Pakistan, as well as several conclusions that are reached based on this analysis.  Nathan's thesis statement is as follows:

Understanding the causes of these discontinuities in interest and conflicts in views demonstrates that America needs to act skeptically, think innovatively, remember the costs of policies and deflate its policy, and, all the while, avoid international abandonment.

More Entangling Alliances

After the State Department welcomed six Pakistani legislators to the United States to show them how America values Pakistan’s security and wellbeing, the six legislators were insulted before departure when they were asked to be scanned twice before boarding their plane. Pakistan, a country whose citizens are required to go through increased security checks before they fly into the U.S., was infuriated as to why the Obama administration would order this if it considered Pakistan an “ally” in the war on terror.

USAID has pledged to spend $750 million on “various projects in the tribal areas” and another $37 million is pledged “by Congress to spend on exchange programs intended to show skeptical Pakistanis that the United States is a real ally, a country that wants to help, not hinder, Pakistan.” Yet, I have to pay out of pocket for college, room & board, food, and books all on my own. I’m also pretty sure that Niccolo Machiavelli warned, “The Prince who contributes to the advancement of another power ruins his own… a Prince ought never to take the side of a neighboring state more powerful than himself, because even if he is victorious he is at the mercy of his neighbor.” And at this rate, Pakistan wields more regional power and respect than the United States does, especially if USAID is resorting to bribing foreigners into believing the U.S. is the land of candy, rainbows, and butterflies.

Pakistani Leadership Standing up to US Aggression

Good for Pakistani Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani for standing up to the US drone bombing program, which according to the Pakistani government killed 140 civilians for every terrorist.

No wonder the Obamabots didn't want to answer Helen Thomas's question about what motivates terrorists:

Obama vows to bring "every element" of U.S. power against terrorists. Great.

Speaking in response to the recent terror attacks, the president said:

"We will not rest until we find all who were involved and hold them accountable."

"We will continue to use every element of our national power to disrupt, to dismantle and defeat the violent extremists who threaten us, whether they are from Afghanistan or Pakistan, Yemen or Somalia, or anywhere where they are plotting attacks against the U.S. homeland," Obama added.

This is no doubt meant to be encouraging to us, to assure us all that the "administration is doing enough to contain security threats."  But let's consider what this actually means in practice.

Most immediately, it means that Obama has ordered the airport security process to be reviewed.  If it's found to be wanting, as I have a sneaking suspicion it will be, we'll probably get to enjoy arriving at the airport three hours early instead of two.