Aid to Pakistan: Clarify Terms
Re “New Role for Onetime Pariah,” editorial, Feb. 13: As you state, “The United States’ relationship with Pakistan is for the long run.” It is needed to control drug trafficking, to curb arms smuggling and to contain terrorists and extremists. Pakistan needs economic help to save it from bankruptcy, but any military help might interfere in the internal affairs of Afghanistan and India, as it has led to the current disaster.
Pakistan’s territorial integrity should be defended, but there should be no extraterritorial expansion. Pakistan’s leaders’ cooperation to fight terrorism has the double meaning of freedom fighting and liberation. President Bush should draw a line between our interests in fighting terrorism and Pakistan’s leaders’ definition of terrorism in return for the aid offered.
Nirode Mohanty
Huntington Beach
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