Guest Voice: What US Vote ‘08 Means To Pakistanis
January 7th, 2008
By JOE GANDELMAN, Editor-In-Chief
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Editor’s Note: This 2008 U.S. elections are being watched carefully — and nowhere more carefully than in troubled Pakistan. This Guest Voice column was written for TMV for the Pakistan-based website The Pakistani Spectator.
What US Vote ‘08 Means To Pakistanis
by The Pakistani Spectator
In Pakistan, every incident, accident and every ominous fortuity is blamed on America. We are obsessed here with everything American.
Whenever a regime is toppled in Pakistan we look at each other and utter ‘CIA!’ in unison.
Whenever a leader is assassinated, we try to find an American approval behind it.
Whenever anything significant happen, we first think what would it achieve for America — and then we bother about ourselves.
With the state of the affairs here, how could we in Pakistan ignore the upcoming 2008 election in America?
With the American presence in neighboring Afghanistan, and the fact that Al-Qaeda is the punishing Pakistani regime for helping the US in its war against terrorism in the form of suicide attacks in various Pakistan cities, Pakistanis are more than ever highly interested in what’s happening on the US national horizon.
Though President Bush has often declared Pakistan is a front line ally of America in the war against terrorism — and Bush regards President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan as a close friend — many Pakistanis think that the upcoming election results in US will determine whether US will attack Pakistan or not. Then there is a case of Dr. A. Q. Khan, who allegedly supplied information related to nukes to Libya and North Korea, and who is under house arrest. Then there is a funny apprehension by some US hawks that nukes in Pakistan are not in the safe hands, and instability in Pakistan would only enable militants to takeover the nuclear arm’s red button.
THE election pitch continues to steadily rise in the US Presidential election. Like rest of the mainstream America, others outside America who are struggling to become part of the American milieu, are also bracing to be heard. Pakistanis are one such community.
They want to tell American public that they don’t support terrorism, and they are dead set against any form of terrorism.
They want them to know that hawkish claims by some US candidates are just another “Weapons of Mass Destruction” — and its time that world comes to sanity, and instead of force, starts resolving issues through dialogue.
They don’t like it when Senator Joe Biden says that “it is long past time that the U.S. ready troops to hunt Osama bin Laden in Pakistan.” They understand when Fred Thompson argues that US shouldn’t suspend aid to Pakistan but it should “play hardball” with President Pervez Musharraf over his suspension of the constitution. When Tom Tancredo said that he wanted to attack Mecca and Medina, he was promptly condemned here. Barack Obama, who recently won the Iowa caucus have also adopted a tough tone against Pakistan. Recently Mrs. Clinton has also echoed the same remarks.
Perhaps these claims and statements by the US candidates can be somewhat ignored as part of the “Frenzy of Elections”, but candidates should inform the US pubic and not provoke them. Pakistan has been suffering from terrorism and economic downfall because it is fighting the American war in its own country against its own people.
It is said that all politics are local, but that is not true in the case of America, and while casting their votes, Americans should keep that in mind. They have huge responsibilities on their shoulders.
The Pakistani Spectator
This entry was posted on Monday, January 7th, 2008 at 12:41 am and is filed under Newsweek Blogitics, Pakistan, Guest Contributor, 2008 Elections, Politics. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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