Hell is other Pakistanis

Posted By Blake Hounshell Tuesday, September 30, 2008 - 8:48 AM Share

I was amused to see the BBC misquoting the new Central Command commander, Gen. David Petraeus, on the "existentialist threat" facing Pakistan:

You have heard the newly elected President Zadari. You've heard the army chief and others all recognise that this is in a sense an existentialist threat, this is a threat to Pakistan's very existence," the general added.

Of course, Petraeus actually said "existential threat," as the accompanying video shows, without the "-ist." He was referring to the Taliban and other militant groups.

But I wonder, what would an existentialist threat to Pakistan consist of? Suddenly, madrasa students are reading Sartre and Camus instead of memorizing the Quran and the Sunnah? Nihilism replaces Islamism as the reining ideology of tribal militancy? That, to me, sounds like positive change.

EXPLORE:SOUTH ASIA, MEDIA, MILITARY, PAKISTAN
 

CINDY

11:06 AM ET

September 30, 2008

"Like a dog"...

Some Kafkaesque elements do come to mind, though.

 

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