Canada and the World
Current Events with a Canadian Perspective
Last update
31 October 2011
Terrorist Training in Pakistan
While the push is on to defeat the Taliban
in Afghanistan the real hotbed for
Islamic extremism is next door in Pakistan
Faisal Shahzad tried to detonate a bomb in his car in New York’s Times Square on May 1, 2010. He got his training, such as it was, in Pakistan.
A more successful bomber was Ramzi Yousef; his detonation in the basement of the World Trade Centre in New York in 1993 killed six people and injured more than a 1,000. Yousef trained in Pakistan.
So did Richard Reid who tried to light a bomb hidden in his shoe in the middle of a transatlantic flight in December 2001.
Several of the suicide attackers who blew themselves up in the London, England subway in July 2005 (death toll 52) were taught their grim craft in Pakistan.
Terrorism Training Thrives in Dysfunctional State
So why is Pakistan the got-
The government, he writes, “does absolutely nothing for its people, except require
the payment of taxes and bribes. It offers virtually no social services…”
The result is a society divided between a tiny, wealthy elite and vast numbers of extremely poor people.
Pakistan’s Underclass
Within Pakistan’s huge underclass, Unicef reports that “Almost 40 percent of children under five are underweight.” Undernourishment means stunted growth, both physically and mentally.
And, Unicef has more figures to describe a nation that is starting to fail.
Two thirds of boys do not complete primary school;
“An estimated 3.3 million children under the age of 14 work, many in exploitative and hazardous labour; and,
“Ongoing conflict in the northwest has displaced some two million people since 2008, with most displaced since April 2009.
Massive American Aid Contributions
However, since the 1950s, the United States has sent hundreds of billions of dollars in aid into Pakistan, much of it in the form of military assistance, as chronicled in a Newsweek Timeline.
The purpose of this aid has been to prop up a series of corrupt and oppressive governments,
many of them military.
The money has flowed because Pakistan was an American ally in the Cold War struggle against the Soviet Union and now against Muslim extremists.
Little Aid Money Used to Alleviate Poverty
However, despite that massive amount of U.S. cash, Pakistan’s government does nothing for the majority of its people, who, as a result see it as an irrelevant puppet of America.
Boston University’s Adil Najam has written on the All Things Pakistan blog: “If you have lost faith in the state, anyone who comes along and offers you a glorious future…is very attractive.”
So, Muslim extremists fill the void left by an absent government and find it easy
to recruit ill-
The chance to fight back against the agent of oppression is compelling.
As a result, the almost ungovernable provinces of northwest Pakistan have become a factory for producing terrorists. That’s why Prof. Brinkley writes: “I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. America’s problem is not Afghanistan. The problem is Pakistan.”
He quotes U.S. State Department official Daniel Markey who told a Congressional committee: “The United States should shift its strategic focus not just from Iraq to Afghanistan, not just to link Afghanistan and Pakistan, but to go one step further and place Pakistan at the centre of our strategic concerns.”
Image credit
NB77
U.S. Dept of Defence
“U.S. Problem in One Word: Pakistan.” Joel Brinkley, McClatchy-
“Pakistan: Background.” Unicef, June 24, 2009.
“About those Billions.” Newsweek, 2009.
© Canada and the World, October 2011
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Osama bin Laden (above), the world’s number one terrorism suspect was killed by U.S. special forces in May 2011.
The sponsor of the 9/11 attacks on the United States and other terrorist attacks was shot near Islamabad, Pakistan’s capital.
He had been hiding out in a compound in the town of Abbottabad. He was living right under the noses of Pakistan’s military, which had a large garrison in the town.
- “Pakistan’s maternal mortality ratio is about 276 per 100,000 live births, compared to 17 per 100,000 in the United States.
- “Nearly 1 in 10 children does not survive his or her fifth birthday, with the majority
of deaths due to diarrhoea, pneumonia or vaccine-
preventable diseases.
- “Almost 40 percent of children under five are underweight and lack household sanitation, especially in rural areas.”
Unicef
- “Pakistan’s per capita expenditure on health is only US$18, of which US$4 is public expenditure, compared to the recommended US$45. Less than 2.5 percent of GDP is spent on education, compared to the recommended 2.8 to 3.6 percent.
- “Only 42 percent of Pakistani women are literate, and the proportion falls to 7 percent in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas.”
Unicef