How To Save America From The Abyss

After the near-assassination of US politician Gabrielle Giffords, I made an important discovery. I discovered that she was almost killed, and possibly crippled for life, in the same state - Arizona - that produced the American terrorist Timothy McVeigh. It also produced a hate preacher called John Hagee, the one who made the famous statement, 'All Muslims are programmed to kill.'  As a child, Hagee was probably addicted to the science fiction movie E.T.

Arizona is also the same state that produced an American president that wasn't: John McCain. Senator McCain almost made it in the 2008 presidential elections. But see what kind of people Arizona has been producing: Mr. McCain is a warmonger. As President Obama visited India in November, Mr. McCain issued a series of statements welcoming the prospects of United States ganging up with India against China, and also against Pakistan.

Just imagine this: a politician who thinks he is presidential material is rooting for a future massive war in Asia because that suits his ego.

I have always maintained that ordinary Americans are some of the nicest people you'd find anywhere. But it is the American political elite that wants to mislead these good people into a war with the rest of the planet.

This is the theme of my analytical piece that I wrote for Project For Pakistan In 21st Century, an independent think-tank based in Islamabad. The paper is titled, How To Save America From The Abyss. I hope it makes a good read.

American McShoe In Pakistan's Face

US senators Mitch McConnell and John McCain visited Pakistan at the same time. Both of them met Pakistani leaders. These two pictures, from the Associated Press of Pakistan, stand out from their list of meetings in Islamabad. At the top, Sen. John's McShoe is protruding into Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilnai's face. And in the second one, Sen. Mitch's McShoe is distracting Pakistan's army chief.

Is there something here or am I just reading too much into these pictures?
I'd love to see our Ambassador Husain Haqqani mustering his guts to put on display a similar spectacle with US President or his VP in Washington. Mr. Haqqani probably won't do this because it's simply in bad taste. 

A Pakistani living in the United States for a long time emailed me saying this happens all the time in the US and so it's no big deal.

That's not true.  In recent months, Pakistani officials have seen an increase in the number of incidents where US diplomats have resorted to bully tactics against the host country. This includes sending undercover operatives and private defense contractors to Pakistan with diplomatc passports and lying to the Pakistani government about it. When Pakistan tried to check this, CIA and other parts of the US government resorted to a cheap tactic. Reports suddenly flooded the US media talking about Pakistan 'harassing' US diplomats. Then there is the story of how several junior diplomats working under the US ambassador in Pakistan took turns every week or so in issuing public statements indirectly threatening war and invasion against Pakistan over the alleged presence of the Afghan Taliban leadership here. Our Foreign Office told them not to make such statements without evidence. And yet they were at it again.

In this backdrop, actions such as flaunting a shoe in the face of a guest during a formal government-to-government meeting is not okay.

If some of you think this is reading too much into things, see how Turkey extracted an apology from Israel over a sofa. See the two pictures below.

I know I would take offense to someone flaunting his shoe in my face during an official meeting.

Maybe Amb. Anne W. Patterson should sensitize the powerful guests from Washington to common manners instead of wasting her energies on hunting down who to expel next from which Pakistani newspaper for criticizing US policies. This week, the US Embassy in Islamabad had the audacity to issue a statement accusing an editorial writer in the Urdu-language newspaper Nawai Waqt for slandering Richard Holbrooke. Why? Because the paper dared question US policy intentions.

Pakistan should start taking offense at these indirect messages of insult in the same manner that Turkey did.  Unfortunately, under a US-installed government, Pakistan has lost tremendous credibility and respect in the eyes of both its own citizens and friends overseas.