Christopher Lydon of Radio Open Source has just interviewed Omer Alvie, a well known Pakistani blogger who blogs at The Olive Ream and a very passionate Pakistani like many of us. He has a knack of interspersing humor into his writings on his blog that one often wonders where does he come up with all this, this interview is nothing different when he says ‘….the hitlist should have the letter S in front of it’. Check out the interview on Radio Open Source or listen to it here
[audio:OmerAlvie.mp3]A few excerpts from his interview
The external influence is so strong on Pakistani politics I have to go back to the War on Terror. This thing overall is farcical to me If you want to get to the root cause of why terrorist cells exist, or why terrorism happens, you dont go around bombing countries or arresting innocent people in hopes of catching a few. Thats not addressing the problem, and thats whats happening in Pakistan. I sometimes get the feeling that Pakistan is being conditioned. I believe its on the same hitlist as Iraq, Iran and Syria. Actually I should clarify: the hitlist should have the letter S in front of it, because thats probably how the project of the New American Century and most of the Bush administration sees it this collosally screwed up foreign policy which is now classified as a “war on terrorism
The whole “war on terror thing, this 9.11 thing, I think, has screwed up Pakistan more than anything else really, because its affected us more. Were stuck in bookends. The average Pakistani is now stuck being questioned by extremists and militants about how to dress, what to do, when to pray, and being questioned constantly about how they live their lives. This is their experience in Pakistan. The same Pakistanis when they travel outside to the US get blamed and classified in a very generic manner as a terrorist, because theyre a Pakistani or a Muslim. We are squeezed between 2 bookends.