I don’t think the cobbler would have access to Fox News to form his opinion about the US.
ISLAMABAD: I don’t think the cobbler would have access to Fox News to form his opinion about the US. On the other hand, he would be subjected to the constant flow of anti-Americanism from the pulpit of his mosque as well as a dose of the same from the customers he meets that are in turn fed this hate through television.
The fact that he admits to the Taliban’s oppression and then in the same breath opposes the state’s action for his freedom shows that there is something very wrong in the way the war on terror is being portrayed to Pakistanis.
There are consequences if one criticises the role of the army in fighting this menace. However, for example, in Bajaur, whole villages have been flattened to ‘rid’ the place of the Taliban. There are widespread stories, believed among local residents, that the military or elements within it are hand-in-glove with the Taliban; but no one is willing to talk about this, for obvious reasons.
The result of that is that the anti-American version of the story has become the Pakistani narrative — a position that assumes that the army has done its job sincerely and that their inability to cope with this problem has nothing to do with their own complicity or dismal performance.
Imran Khan
Published in The Express Tribune, August 9th, 2011.
