Pakistan, a large third world country has a literacy rate of 49.9%. Compare that to countries like Finland and the USA respectively: 100% and 99% Only about half of the Pakistan's school age kids go to schools. The fact that those "schools" are poorly funded and planned is another story. In my opinion, British Colonization has also played a big part of this, but that is also another story for another day.
This is the very reason why the youth are turning to terrorism in Pakistan. Here's why: Before being recruited by terrorist organizations like LeT (responsible for the Mumbai attacks) most of them are severely poor and have been brutally wronged by the current corrupt system. Their lives are already headed in a downward spiral. Then they are approached by a recruiter who brainwashes them with stuff like: "they could change their life around and become a hero" by fighting "evil America" with its vicious torturing techniques, etc, they could become a martyr and go to heaven, etc..you know where I'm going with this. Essentially the recruiters bank on these poor, hopeless youth's hopelessness and desperation to be acknowledged. How do we stop this? Education and opportunities. If these youth were educated, they could be analytical and understand that Al Qaeda isn't really a religious group, but rather a political group hijacking religion to recruit more support. Al Qaeda understands this very well too. Which is another reason why they are against schools. They prefer not to have their large recruitment base destroyed when hope is introduced into the minds of their youth.
These youth could also help the struggling country about to go bankrupt by going into public service, education, health care and further contribute and expand those sectors that are in need of desperate attention currently. Good schools which provide good education could change the current plight of these people by introducing opportunities and HOPE to these people and make them realize that they are being blackmailed and brainwashed into a wrong, hateful cause that does nothing but destroy. President Obama's inauguration speech mentioned how 'we will be judged on what we create rather than what we destroy."
Recently, I came by Jon Stewart's latest interview with the ambassador of Pakistan to the US, Mr. Husain Haqqani. I highly recommend that you watch it (http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=227340&title=husain-haqqani). It's an excellent thought-provoking discussion of how to face the perils of Taliban and Al Qaeda militancy within Pakistan. (Yes, I know Jon Stewart is "just a comedian," but note that he's a well informed one)
Stewart also briefly mentions how our support of Al Qaeda during the Cold War era helped it grow and now its backfiring. This is similar to how the Pakistanis supported terrorist groups such as LeT to prepare for war against India but now it is backfiring on the entire country.
In my opinion, we (the USA) need to invest in non-military operations within Pakistan to fight recruitment into terrorism rather than investing in military. You can expect any military investment to go straight down the drain as it is used purely for skirmishes with India. Those of you who have visited my column often will have noticed that my previous header was pretty relevant to this issue: "books not bombs defeat terrorism" and the introductory rant of this article.
An interesting point made by the ambassador was on our President Obama understanding the situation there well and addressing it appropriately by considering to provide aid to their non-military sector. The ambassador brought attention to the fact that President Obama had visited Pakistan before during his college years.
For those of you who did decide to watch the video, here is a supplementary link to enjoy with it:http://www.husainhaqqani.com/articlesonhh/New%20envoy%20urges%20US.html
However, I must say that I disagree with many of the points the above link brings up. For instance, unless the quick "infusion of US cash" is on non-military sector of Pakistan then I am completely against it as you probably understand by now. Plus, the article brings up Musharraf's "dictatorial moves" as the reason to why he became unpopular. Sorry, but I personally believe that Musharraf was the best President Pakistan had for decades. Not "best" in the sense that he changed the wrong direction the country was going in, but "best" in the sense, he made it go in that direction slower than anyone else preceding or following. This is because he was no where as corrupt as the Bhutto dynasty which destroyed the entire nation's resources. Mrs. Bhutto rightly accused and exiled on corruption charges was obviously wrongly assassinated last year, but her husband, the current President of Pakistan has been charged with both corruption and murder. That reason alone is enough for me to dislike him. Yes, Musharraf was a dictator and no one likes dictators. But sometimes when the democratic system of a country is so broken due to intense corruption and worthless elections, dictatorship is necessary to serve as a temporary corrective measure as Musharraf himself stated. Words are obviously not enough. So he backed it up by showing boosts in the GDP of the country under his leadership, GDP boosts that are non-existent in other administrations before and after him. So by simple logic, he must have been doing something right. Of course events play a huge part in the GDP. And we can't attribute the GDP success solely to the Leader, but looking at the situation right now, Pakistan is back to corruption as it was before Musharraf's time and the GDP is down. Some may question the credibility of the corruption accusations. One of the biggest evidence we have of corruption is "before-and-after." Only after a while in office, did the Bhuttos and Sharif create Swiss accounts with billions of dollars of money.
To bring this rambling back to the point, let me add that POTUS is indeed attempting to triple non-military aid to Pakistan in order to "raise standards of living" there. And there is also some talk of the controversial drone and their highly classified technology being possibly shared with the Pakistani military. A technology that the CIA hasn't shared even with the closest of our allies. More info in this can be found on http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/14/world/asia/14drone.html?ref=asia
Seed Newsvine
