What to do with Pakistan?

When is a state not a state that is surly by now a question of these times, we so far had states, failed states, virtual states, terrorist states and drug states. Some states are recognized and in reality many are not. In my opinion there are even some states that have ceased to exist in almost every single meaning of the word just the governmentshave not yet realized it yet like in the case Pakistan.

When I hear the word Pakistan I think of Yugoslavia in the 1990s and both states seem to have a lot in commion. Both are complex mixtures of different ethnic groups with different religious beliefs. But the major difference between them is that Yugoslavia was not a nuclear weapons state. The historic similarities seem to be clear pakistan a lost cause even if the army takes back control of the state in time if still needs to give control back to civil goverment. The problem is that everything about Pakistan is divided unlike India which is united with its Hindu culture that does not seem to be any think unifying Pakistan anymore, one commentator said yesterday Urdu and cricket united the country. After the attack on the Sri Lanka cricket team the country now and he has one thing uniting it a common language And if you look at the country itself to even areas where that is not true as well.

With all the problems in Afghanistan along the tribal belt surnly by now it is dawning on the west by now a radical solution is needed. If it was me I divide the country into two the East and the West, in the East I keep the a rump of Pakistan the rest I would guess including Balochistan (which would in my view best be put under UN Trustship) the rest of the West of Pakistan I would put under NATO and my plan would be to make the North West areas part of Afghanistan.

The rump of Pakistan would be made up of Sindh, Punjab and Kashmir the hope would be this would stop Pakistan's nuclear weapons getting into the wrong hands. The smaller state . The plan would for this state which would be to try and stop it from just being like Russia after the USSR or Turky after the Ottoman Empire. The West would have to invest a huge amounts of money but this smaller state should be more stable then what it is now and like Russa and Turky it would be a good idea to give it a new name. Of course the cost of the project will be similar to the cost of rebuilding both Germany and Japan after world war two and in addition like with the latter their will need to be major structural changes to the societies in the region. We need to get rid off politically ambitious religious leaders and we need to find a way to separate the church from state a bit like Turkey after world war one but unlike Turkey we are going to need to find a way of not of just persecuting religion for religion's sake but bringing under control the ideologies.

However I would be lying if I said the solution was only in Southern Asia its also in another area of world the Middle East for years Saudi Arabia and other goverments have been funding Madrasahs where many of the religious fundamentalists have been produced. So also is probably needed to is a recognition in the West that we need to force these societies to changebecause I'm now of the opinion that till we do more bomb attacks could could happen.

My feeling is as a Wester is something needs to be done we now have in South East Asia a state that seems to be failling and becoming a non functioning entity. they have a president held up in his ivory tower, an army that's proving to be impotent. Most of the country seems be run by people who seem to be as bad as the Islamic fundamentalists who most peopele like myself in the wish hope are captured soon.

I think I should say I never step foot in South Asia in my life I Jewish and I a rank outsider, I know that in Eastern Pakistan that their is a history of religious tolerance and my instinct are that in the West we need to help it, but I must stress thats what I think from a distance I could be wrong!