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- Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Archives Revels Classifieds Real Estate Menu Guide Wedding Weather Subscribe Contact Us March 16, 2006 Commentary A lust for competition is key to success Rob Asghar Has Washington done all it can to incentivize economic and educational progress in Pakistan? That nation played the frustrated third wheel during the recent lovefest between its hated rival India and President George Bush. Ponder this. The Bush administration believes that societal progress is measured by quick transitions to free elections. Pakistan is scheduled for elections in 2007. Consider that the Pew Research Center found last summer that 51 percent of Pakistanis have some degree of “confidence in Osama bin Laden to do the right thing regarding world affairs” — an increase of a few percentage points from 2003. Consider expert Stephen Cohen has called Pakistan, a country repeatedly jilted by Washington, “probably the most anti-American country in the world right now, ranging from the radical Islamists on the one side to the liberals and Westernized elites on the other.” Consider that Pakistan has nuclear weapons. We don’t need to be drawn any more pictures. We have believed that bringing democracy to the Mideast and South Asia will keep Osama’s crowd from getting nukes. It may yet be the fastest way, if we continue to move so clumsily. Washington must do better in its diplomacy with Pakistan. But the flip side of the coin is that anti-American conspiracy theorists — housewives, schoolboys, liberal intellectuals and rednecks, from Karachi to Kabul to Cairo and beyond — must bring a new approach to achieve the regional renaissance that they yearn for. How did we come to a point where the United States treats New Delhi as its teacher’s pet while it treats Islamabad, a supposedly crucial friend, as a barely tolerated underachiever? A generation ago, the Nixon administration unabashedly had a “Pakistan tilt,” given Delhi’s cozying up to the Soviet Union With the Cold War a receding memory, and with India beginning to flex its economic and technological muscles, America sees it as the prettiest girl at the party. As Indian native Salman Rushdie observed in a lecture in Los Angeles two weeks ago, America senses that “India is where the action is.” India’s status as a “hedge,” a democratic rival to China, makes it even more fetching. Whither Pakistan, then? Wither the world’s sixth-most-populous country, with extraordinary human capital and an opportunity to serve as a cultural bridge between east and west? Given that we are dealing with shame-based cultures, Bush’s friendliness to India and the manner in which the reviled Hindus now appear to be eating their lunch should constitute a wake-up call — in much the manner that Sputnik was a wake-up call for Americans. Where is God in all this, and why does he allow this torrent of torments? Osama bin Laden believes that God will deliver an Islamic renaissance only if the faithful rise up and crush the West. It is a more tempting ideology to frustrated Muslims than some might think — especially if the Arab world remains convinced that the West is out to mock Islam. Too many hillbilly clerics find personal glory in this message, dismissing Western society’s many advantages even as they and their flocks run off to those societies to guzzle those advantages. It is time to be real. The United States, France, Britain and even Israel each could incinerate the rest of the Mideast if they truly were at war with a religion. The wisest Muslim immigrants of the West know that the key is not to destroy the riches of others in a fit of jealousy, but to learn to compete. We speak of needing to jack up American competitiveness. We need a similar boost of Muslim competitiveness. But time runs short: Europe is awakening to the notion that its liberal immigration policies and liberal welfare programs will undo its liberal societies. Right-wing pols throughout the West are only one or two more terror attacks away from doing what Osama bin Laden wants them to do — stirring up enduring enmity between Western societies and even the most moderate Muslims living here. A Hindu civilization that brought astonishing developments in science and mathematics, then fell asleep, is now undergoing a fantastic revival. A Muslim world that a half-millennium ago was the envy of the West has all the intellectual, spiritual and financial capital that it needs to again be a proud civilization. But it needs to abandon victimhood in favor of a lust for healthy competition. DailyTidings.com Home Page Archives | Revels | Classifieds | Real Estate Guide | Weather | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2005 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Deep Muscle Stimulator Ceramic Piggy Banks FREE Entertainment Guide Women's & Men's Slippers Accelerate Weightloss Products Backpacks Generic Viagra Vegas Travel Guide Search Engine Optimization Sportsbook Absinthe Supply Student Loans Hotel & Airline Reservations African Safari Hammocks Helzberg Diamonds Online Casinos Community Bonus Casino King of Spirits ink cartridges Mortgage Calculator Security Systems Mailing Lists Click Here Advertisement .:Advertisements:. Site Search: RESOURCES - Mail Tribune News - ODOT Road Cams