China is our only hope, and I fear what price they will ask for their friendship in the days to come.
LONDON: This is with reference to Tanvir Ahmad Khan’s article of May 17 titled “The great debacle”. It will be wishful thinking to assume that the US will back off at the posturing currently being displayed by the Pakistani government.
If they have credible evidence that more Taliban or al Qaeda bigwigs are in Pakistan, they will come back and take them out. One thing the American people will not tolerate is a soft approach to people who threaten them, and every US president knows that. We have now been pushed into a corner, and our weaknesses as a nation badly exposed. In such a situation, acting defiant will only encourage the aggressor.
China is our only hope, and I fear what price they will ask for their friendship in the days to come. The Islamic world is divided, and weak. China will not take on the might of the West at a critical stage in its own rise to the top. If the West decides enough is enough, we are on our own. People have been talking of sovereign pride and Islamic values, especially since May 2. But no one talks of restoring our secular institutions, providing education and establishing a civilian government which controls the nation.
Aslam Sher Khan
Published in The Express Tribune, May 18th, 2011.
