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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: IQBAL LATIF who wrote (5183)	10/15/2001 5:38:03 AM
From: Bilow	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Hi IQBAL LATIF; My read of the U.S. press is that Pakistan is helping the United States immensely. I've seen articles noting that the Pakistan government has (1) put Taliban sympathizers under house arrest, (2) arranged pro government marches, (3) provided the U.S. with invaluable information, (4) allowed the United States as much freedom to use their territory (air space) as is reasonable given their population's feelings, (5) sacked several of their respected military officers for being too close to the Taliban, and (6) gave our ultimatum to the Taliban. It's obvious to us that this was done at great personal risk to Musharraf and the rest of Pakistan's leaders. These are all I could think of at the moment, but I'm sure I missed some. Those who read only the stories with big glossy pictures may think of Pakistan as an enemy, but it's very clear to anyone reading the "10th grade reading level" articles that Pakistan is our ally here. In addition, the United States being the mongrel nation that it is, everyone here is undoubtedly connected to someone who emigrated from Pakistan through a couple degrees of separation. My own feeling is that the best thing that the US can do for nations that are in danger of Islamic (or any other type of) Fundamentalism is to promote economic growth. And the best way to promote economic growth in these countries is to liberalize controls on their exports to the United States. And I see some movement by the administration in that direction. [I believe that it was Nixon who destroyed the USSR, and he did it by liberalizing trade with them.] -- Carl