Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Why does Pakistan export jihad?

Fareed Zakaria writes that since its founding the Pakistani government has supported and encouraged jihadi groups, creating an atmosphere that has allowed them to flourish.

Related:

Times Square suspect 'inspired' by former GW graduate student

1 comment:

Jeffrey said...

Here is an interesting answer offering a little background as well. Unlike Fareed Zakaria genuine Foreign Affair commentators do not overlook the fact that in the late 1970s and most of the 1980s Afghanistan had a government committed to bringing the incredibly underdeveloped country into the 20th century (never mind the 21st), including giving women equal rights.

The below lines describe what happended then according to William Blum: The United States, however, poured billions of dollars into waging a
terrible war against this government, simply because it was supported by the Soviet
Union. By aiding the fundamentalist opposition, Washington knowingly and deliberately
increased the probability of a Soviet intervention.55 And when that occurred, the CIA
became the grand orchestrator: hitting up Middle Eastern countries for huge financial
support, on top of that from Washington; pressuring and bribing neighboring Pakistan to
rent out its country as a military staging area and sanctuary; supplying a great arsenal of
weaponry and military training.