U.S. President Barack Obama has started reaching out to some of Pakistan’s most fervent Islamist and anti-American parties, including one that helped give rise to the Taliban, trying to improve Washington’s image in the nuclear-armed state. Obama’s special envoy, Richard Holbrooke, is initiating dialogue between the United States and religious parties previous administrations had largely shunned, both sides said. “The purpose is to broaden the base of American relations in Pakistan beyond the relatively narrow circle of leaders Washington has previously dealt with,” explained Vali Nasr, senior adviser to Holbrooke.
I’d love to know the paper trail behind this stroke of sophistication. Do you think that it originated in one of those roundtables that State occasionally organizes, where academics earn their consulting fees by spinning outlandish pro-diplomacy scenarios (top prize: a guaranteed invitation to the next roundtable!) Or did State’s South Asia people just skip the formalities and conclude that (a) engaging people ideologically committed to our destruction is good and (b) Pakistani Islamists are really, really ideologically committed to destroying us so (c) engaging Pakistani Islamists must be super-good?
I wonder if we’ll ask them about how radical Pakistani clerics are urging kids to spread Islam violently because “the tree of Islam was irrigated with the blood of martyrs?” Or about Pakistani intelligence, increasingly controlled by their side of the political spectrum, is outing US intelligence officials to Al Qaeda? Or about how Pakistani officials willfully destroyed a Christian graveyard to make room for a shopping mall? Or about how rampaging Pakistani mobs have taken to snatching up Christian women and children and openly torturing them? Or about how hardline Pakistani officials forced the government to free AQ Khan? Or about how the rape of Christian girls in the context of persecuting non-Muslims is now a thing?
I’m thinking we’ll gloss over most of that and go straight to explaining all the reasons they should give us a second look. Because that’s the problem – they just don’t understand us enough.
References and previously after the jump…
References:
* Obama reaches out to Islamist parties in Pakistan [Reuters]
* Conference: ”Muslim Ummah, Owing To Its Sentiments Of Jihad, Changed The Geography Of The World.” [MEMRI]
* US spies killed in terrorist raid [Daily Times]
* Christian Graveyard Demolished for Shopping Mall in Pakistan [Assistnews]
* Pakistani Muslims attack church, torture Christians [Asianews.it]
* Pakistan frees ‘nuke salesman Khan’ [JPost]
* Pakistan Christian Girl Raped By Muslim Extremists [BosNews]
Previously:
* Obama Continues Pattern Of Sophisticated Phone Calls With Post-Inauguration First Call To Holocaust Denier, Erstwhile Terrorist
* UN Afghan Envoy: Obama Should Negotiate With The Taliban. All Of Them.
* Pakistan: We’ll Help You With The Taliban… If You Sell Out India
