New York Times 09/10/2008
By Michael Shank

What unpropitious timing for America to attack Pakistan at the dawn of new democratic elections (“U.S. Attack on Taliban Compound Kills 23 in Pakistani Border Area,” news article, Sept. 9).

In a Pentagon-commissioned, five-missile airstrike that was hardly coincidentally timed, Washington’s agenda was clear: to alert Islamabad that allegiance in the war on terrorism is a nonnegotiable item.

How the airstrikes resonated among the Pakistani public, however, was far different: the new president of Pakistan, Asif Ali Zardari, remains a United States stooge. Is this an effective way of supporting a fledgling democracy, by undermining its leadership mere hours before taking office?

Furthermore, this is hardly an effective way of undermining fundamentalism; if anything, the airstrike breeds more, not less, extremism. Give the tribal regions, instead, an alternative to militancy and help Islamabad do the same.

Where illiteracy and unemployment abound, give them something to work toward. And do it more strategically than with ill-timed airstrikes.

Michael Shank
Arlington, Va., Sept. 9, 2008

The writer is communications director of the Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution at George Mason University.