Why can’t the Afghans decide who their friends ought to be?
CHICAGO: This is with reference to Shahzad Chaudhry’s article of September 19 titled “On the USIP-JI report and notions of ‘strategic depth’”.
Like any state we have genuine interests. But unlike any other country in modern times, we are the only ones that have adopted 1) terror and 2) ‘not — India’ as our state policy — no matter the cost is to us. We accuse the world of interference in our affairs. Yet, without batting an eyelid, we seek to interfere in Afghanistan with retrogressive proxies like the Taliban, al Qaeda, the Haqqani network and so on. Why can’t the Afghans decide who their friends ought to be?
But, given how important this is to our elite, why not allow open debate in parliament and media? Why not seek approval of parliament? That way the civilians will have their chance to contain the dominance of the establishment elite.
A reader
Published in The Express Tribune, September 20th, 2011.
