I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.
--Albert Einstein
One of the countries whose future is wrapped up in all of this is Pakistan. Pakistan is the world's second largest Muslim country. It professes to be a nuclear power, though reportedly its weapons do not work very well. The danger is, its nuclear weapons, or those of some other state with terrorist inclinations, may very well work a lot better in the future. The world is entering an extremely scary period, one in which the prescience of Einstein's famous quote may be determined.
When I was born, Pakistan had just over 50 million people. Now it is approaching 150 million. In 2000, its population was measured as 141,554,000. Of those, more than half (approximately 73,000,000) were under the age of 20. Poverty is rampant, the political system has suffered from corruption since the country was created, and now a military dictator is in power. Support for the Taliban, for radical brands of fundamental Islamic tenets, is widespread, though not a majority point of view.
I think it is important for the U.S. to realize that this is not an Afghanistan problem. It is not even just a problem of current terrorist cells. If you breathe in asbestos or some other nasty carcinogen from your environment, chances are that you will get cancer. A surgeon can come in and remove the cancerous cells. But if you continue the exposure to the carcinogen, the cancer will return, and ultimately, it will prevail. |
