All I can say is that you must read up on the US Pakistan relationship history.
I am generally aware of the history there, not as much as you probably. I think there is reason to believe this time is different. The biggest difference is the nature of the attacks on the U.S. Our people have a history of isolationism. Our natural tendency as a people (not necessarily in government circles) is, protected by two large oceans, to stick to ourselves unless something directly affects us.
What changed so dramatically on Sept. 11 is that we now believe, as a public, that all of this stuff affects us.
Let me draw an analogy. Where I live, there are lots of police but little serious crime. An hour's drive away, there is lots of crime and the police can't keep pace with it. We have no interest in sending our police officers down there to those places because it doesn't affect us. If they kill each other, that's sad and unfortunate, but in the end we don't do much about it.
But if kids from the urban high-crime areas start wandering our tree lined streets, terrorizing our children, pulling guns out and robbing us as we step out of our cars as we arrive home from work, you can bet that we would not only step up our own police force but would also coordinate with the police and other authorities in the city to try to strike at the core of the problem. And that effort would go beyond building a moat, I believe......it would involve trying to address the overall nature of criminality wherever it might arise. Because you never know what neighborhood it's going to come from next. |
