Shameless King and his partisans

as if nawaz has done anything better or zardari is doing better now. Just read newspapers. He just acquired 44000 acres in sind through unlawful means

Speak for yourself Nikhat, I am part of the Nation and I am not willing to forgive either Zardari or Nawaz Sharif for looting my hard earned directly (Nawaz Shariff wiped our family's foreign exchange account in 1998) and indirectly (I work hard in this country and pay taxes with which they buy palaces in Jeddah and London and condos over looking Thames and Central Park).

I want accountability from every chor and lutera.

BTW, I knew that this topic was going to be discussed in the future, so a couple of hours before you wrote your blog, I already answered it http://chowk.com/ilogs/68232/47796

ummm...I don't think we should subscribe to collective amnesia once again...

and realistically, no-one (pakistani president or PM) can show "backbone" to this super power given our level of dependence on it. Yes, personally, they could show "backbone" but then the whole country would suffer from that folly.

For the past 50 years, our foreign policy is based on how America feel about us. America means the world to us, we mean almost nothing to America. That's just the reality. No amount of rhetoric can change that.

For 50 years, we have ingratiated ourselves into the position we are in. Totally dependent on America.

We did not have the backbone to ally with USSR, we have constantly backstabbed China, and we isolated ourselves from Iraq and Iran. Iran, co-incidentally, gets along with our neighbors MUCH better than it does with us. Frankly, Afghanistan has always seen us as stealing parts of its territory and has never really warmed to us.

So, here we are, sitting in the middle of nations that are not really friendly to us, and depending (and pissing on), the one nation that sometimes throws us a bone.

And that's where we are. In a begging position.

The way out?

After Japan was defeated in WW2, it was humiliated, decimated, and completely disarmed. It realized the position it was in and in that time of humiliation, accepted the scorn bestowed upon the loser, and went to hard work. Japan built itself up slowly, and is now one of the world powers. In fact, it is not a power due to it's armed forces...which have not seen any action since ww2.

So we have to realize where we are, and start fresh. Cease hostility with the hindustanis, cease hostilities with Afghans, even if these two acts are considered "losses". Team up with China and aid it in its growth by investing in the security of Chinese projects in Pakistan, especially in the mining areas and Gawadar.

[co-incidentally, that security comes from routing out the jeehadees from those areas].

We should focus on reducing the inequities at home, focus on education, and making sure that the money trickles down. Divesting the military from the country's administration is a nice to have, but not a strict necessity. Of course, if we are starting over, it would make sense to show the generals back to the barracks as well.

We are in no position to be boastful braggarts, we haven't actually done anything to brag about. Zardari or Nawaz Sharif cannot grow a backbone for themselves, let alone the whole nation. The whole nation should realize that America is not the problem, our misconception of who we are, and where we are, is the problem.