Sara S
05-24-2011, 06:56 AM
from delancyplace.com:
In today's excerpt - the United States routinely gives billions of dollars to foreign
governments to influence the progress and policies of those governments. Yet the
outcomes of those investments are unpredictable, and often the opposite of what
we intended. During the Cold War, India was sympathetic to the Soviet Union and
so we shunned it, while Pakistan was willing to assume our anti-Communist rhetoric
and so we rewarded it:
"It's the end of the Second World War, and the United States is deciding what to
do about two immense, poor, densely populated countries in Asia. America chooses
one of the countries, becoming its benefactor. Over the decades, it pours billions
of dollars into that country's economy, training and equipping its military and
its intelligence services. The stated goal is to create a reliable ally with strong
institutions and a modern, vigorous democracy. The other country, meanwhile, is
spurned because it forges alliances with America's enemies.
"The country notchosen was India, which 'tilted' toward the Soviet Union during
the Cold War. Pakistan became America's protégé, firmly supporting its fight to
contain Communism. The benefits that Pakistan accrued from this relationship were
quickly apparent: in the nineteen-sixties, its economy was an exemplar. India, by
contrast, was a byword for basket case. Fifty years then went by. What was the result
of this social experiment?
"India has become the state that we tried to create in Pakistan. It is a rising
economic star, militarily powerful and democratic, and it shares American interests.
Pakistan, however, is one of the most anti-American countries in the world, and
a covert sponsor of terrorism. Politically and economically, it verges on being
a failed state. And, despite Pakistani avowals to the contrary, America's worst
enemy, Osama bin Laden, had been hiding there for years - in strikingly comfortable
circumstances - before U.S. commandos finally tracked him down and killed him, on
May 2nd."
Author: Lawrence Wright
Title: "The Double Game"
Publisher: The New Yorker
Date: May 16, 2011
In today's excerpt - the United States routinely gives billions of dollars to foreign
governments to influence the progress and policies of those governments. Yet the
outcomes of those investments are unpredictable, and often the opposite of what
we intended. During the Cold War, India was sympathetic to the Soviet Union and
so we shunned it, while Pakistan was willing to assume our anti-Communist rhetoric
and so we rewarded it:
"It's the end of the Second World War, and the United States is deciding what to
do about two immense, poor, densely populated countries in Asia. America chooses
one of the countries, becoming its benefactor. Over the decades, it pours billions
of dollars into that country's economy, training and equipping its military and
its intelligence services. The stated goal is to create a reliable ally with strong
institutions and a modern, vigorous democracy. The other country, meanwhile, is
spurned because it forges alliances with America's enemies.
"The country notchosen was India, which 'tilted' toward the Soviet Union during
the Cold War. Pakistan became America's protégé, firmly supporting its fight to
contain Communism. The benefits that Pakistan accrued from this relationship were
quickly apparent: in the nineteen-sixties, its economy was an exemplar. India, by
contrast, was a byword for basket case. Fifty years then went by. What was the result
of this social experiment?
"India has become the state that we tried to create in Pakistan. It is a rising
economic star, militarily powerful and democratic, and it shares American interests.
Pakistan, however, is one of the most anti-American countries in the world, and
a covert sponsor of terrorism. Politically and economically, it verges on being
a failed state. And, despite Pakistani avowals to the contrary, America's worst
enemy, Osama bin Laden, had been hiding there for years - in strikingly comfortable
circumstances - before U.S. commandos finally tracked him down and killed him, on
May 2nd."
Author: Lawrence Wright
Title: "The Double Game"
Publisher: The New Yorker
Date: May 16, 2011