Monday, October 12, 2009

"American hubris ... and Pakistani political immaturity", behind 'hiccup' in US-Pakistani relations... ..."

What is it today? Guess-who-can-spot-'Political Immaturity' day
WaPo/ here
".... Some of the popular anger in Islamabad is being manipulated by the Pakistani military, which should know better than to toss a match in the dry tinder of the U.S.-Pakistani relationship. And some of it, frankly, is a sign of Pakistani political immaturity. But the larger point is that this hiccup in the relationship is unnecessary. It's a product of gratuitous language that was written into the legislation despite warnings that it would trigger just this sort of reaction.
The finger-wagging conditions in the bill illustrate a special form of American hubris. U.S. politicians become so accustomed to lecturing others that they lose sight of how their words will be read in foreign capitals and how legislative boilerplate will play on foreign insecurities and anxieties. That's the foreigners' problem, you might say. But when a few gratuitous phrases can destabilize relations with our most important ally against al-Qaeda, then it's our problem, too..."

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