Agence Global - Article

Pakistan at the Tipping Point by Richard Bulliet Released: 5 Nov 2007

In Tehran, a crowd performed its tired annual march past the former American embassy and chanted anti-American slogans left over from the hostage crisis 28 years ago. Meanwhile, next door in Pakistan, General Musharraf declared a national emergency, suspended the constitution, and detained hundreds of lawyers and opposition figures. Yet which country have the American presidential hopefuls focused on as a potential threat to U.S. interests in the Muslim world? The correct answer is Iran. We know this because it was declared a part of the “axis of evil” back in 2002, and the words “World War III” have recently passed the presidential lips. A second question: Which country in actuality poses the greater threat to U.S. interests in the Muslim world? The correct answer is Pakistan, as I have maintained since I last wrote on this topic in the summer of 2004. As I said then: Iran may or may not harbor anti-American terrorists. But Pakistan's borderlands are unquestionably teeming with al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters whom the Pakistani army cannot dislodge without provoking local rebellion.

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