Child of txt
Steve Coll’s story on Pakistan in the latest New Yorker is a must-read. Here’s the abstract — check it out at the newsstand. What stood out:
- It would be cheaper to fund Pakistan’s courts than to buy weapons against the Taliban, because people come to the Taliban to swiftly settle disputes where courts do not. It’s exactly how they rose to power in Afghanistan, and how Bombay gangsters make some of their money.
- The Taliban behead captured Pakistani soldiers discovered to be Shia and distribute the videos throughout the country. It is a Muslim-on-Muslim sect war as much as anything else.
- The Taliban have relatives in the army and the ISI. ‘They are the same people.’ Some Pakistani officers fight the Taliban, some fight only halfheartedly, and some refuse altogether, especially Pathans.
- Benazir Bhutto’s first term may have come to an end because she confronted her military on their unannounced nuclear program — not because she didn’t want the weapons, but because she was fearful of losing American aid. That’s what America’s $10B in rupees might have bought: a return to ghaas, not nukes.
- Bhutto may have justified skimming from Pakistan because the country has no formal campaign finance system, so everything is ‘for the party.’
- When Bhutto sent the letter accusing three men of conspiring against her, one of them, Hamid Gul, filed suit against Benazir to clear his name at a time when the names hadn’t been officially confirmed.
- Two of the men she named worked in military and intelligence; the third, Chaudhry Pervez Elahi, was chief minister of Punjab. He claims he stopped her from holding a rally in Punjab, and in the park where she was later assassinated, for her own safety.
Some of the more prosaic flourishes:
- Political parties use symbols ranging from ceiling fans to AK-47s.
- Benazir sent emails in abbreviated txt spk, such as ‘u’ and ‘cld.’ She was one of the world’s most powerful txt msg babies.
Coll is the author of Ghost Wars.
on Wednesday, January 23rd, 2008, 10:10 pm in Military, Pakistan, Politics › 
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The ‘ghaas’ link was pretty insightful. A country spending 90% if its tax revenue on paranoia is just simply stupid.
I believe that figure includes interest payments on debt.
vow thanks Manish, this is a very interesting article..
I read somewhere that pakistan army is hiring so many new people, they dont check backgrounds and could be hiring all kinds of people including people from militant groups which is dangerous..I see taliban is like Hezbullah which also helps people at the same time has weapons and controls people and can topple govts… worse is in afghanistan atleast from what I read half the money comes to taliban from growing illegal drugs in that land and exporting…
Alvin Toffler wrote power shift long time back and wrote that power will not be in the hands of countries but individual branched out groups..and they control people and not govts..and he is right then..
Like Iraq , pakistan also is seeing sectarian voilence among muslims themselves right now..look at number of attacks within pakistan…it is another iraq and becoming a highly dangerous volatile state..
I think even if Bhutto survived I still feel she would not have done that much..probably it would not be such a breeding ground for terrorism and instability but still looking at her previous track record of corruption charges and everything , things would not be that different..
people in power and political parties might change, but the voilence, corruption and all social evils within the system take a long long time to be wiped out of the system..
Look at India too lallu prasad yadav, jaya lalitha were arrested on corruption charges and went to jail, they come back again year after year while court cases go on..and things dont change much…
dynasties survive for centuries…to hope for sudden good changes in the country just because the party and person in power change is just never going to happen..