Watching "The Situation Room" with Wolf Blitzer this evening, I was somewhat puzzled at the former Pakistani President Musharraf's words. He seemed to be complaining that America should have given Pakistan much more than 10 billion dollars to fight the war on terror. After all, he intimated, we had given trillions in Iraq and many more billions in Afghanistan.
"Please don't think that this $10 billion was such a great amount that we ought to be eternally grateful while we know that we deserve much more and we should have got much more and we must get much more if we are to fight the global war on terror," said President Musharaff.
President Musharraf reminded us that America is leading the war on terror and they are a partner, even though they are being treated "unequally." But does Pakistan not benefit from defeating terriorism? Should President Musharraf be dictating to America what we should give to others? Are others not partners in this role on terrorism too? What are their roles? Have they fulfilled them?
I'd be interested in knowing what President Musharraf felt his failures were as the leader of Pakistan, resigning before being ousted, and in partnering with the United States in the war on terror. Listening to the interview, the former president seemed to have a fitting answer for everything, but I wondered about his country's responsibility.
2 comments:
I've learned the hard way, if you
give someone a large sum of money
very rarely is this appreciated,
they just want more.
Yes and what about Pres. Pervez's
own responsibility?
So true, Cynthia. He did speak, however, in the interview about the support Pakistan had given America throughout the years in partnership. I acknowledge this. But even these words spoke of ingratitude; they still smacked of what we owed them, a kind of irresponsibility, no disrespect intended here to the former president.
These are simply my observations watching the interview, and later reading the transcript after posting this piece. I must admit that my inital reaction did not change much after reading the transcript. Sometimes the transcript illuminates things that I had missed, not here really.
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