No amount of shining up to Washington by us is going to change that we are West's bete noir.
ISLAMABAD: This is with reference to Rasul Baksh Rais’s article of October 3 titled “Down the isolationist abyss”. As the writer himself notes there are elements in the West who mirror the visceral hatred of some in Pakistan or other Muslim countries. Samuel Huntington may have gone too far in predicting a clash between the two but there is no escaping the historic hangover or the present friction between the Islamic world and the West.
Pakistan became the West’s preferred bete noire after it embarked on its nuclear programme. Iran now shares that status. Of course the principal cause of anxiety is Israel’s security. No amount of shining up to Washington by us is going to change that. But Dr Rais is right in pointing the dangers of going over the top. Unfortunately there is a lack of direction from the quarters who are in a position to do that.
M Saeed Khalid
Published in The Express Tribune, October 4th, 2011.
