Saadia Toor

The question posed by the NYT erases the role played by the U.S. and the Pakistani army in creating the Taliban. The dastardly attempt by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan to assassinate the young firebrand schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai, has once again resurrected the tired arguments about the U.S.A.’s alleged responsibility to protect women’s rights in “Af-Pak.” In Pakistan, the Pakistani military is similarly being called upon to do something about the Taliban menace. The questions posed by the New York Times in its “Room for Debate” are an expression of this liberal handwringing. On the MSNBC show “Morning Joe”, Time magazine’s Joe Klein recently offered an impassioned defense of the tactics of the war being waged in Pakistan. In response to the host’s concern about the ethics of the Obama administration’s unprecedented use of drones, Klein responded, “the bottom line in the end is whose 4-year-old gets killed? What we’re doing is limiting the possibility that 4-year-olds here will get killed by indiscriminate acts of terror.” This was a rare moment exposing the ruthlessness that underlies a project sold to the American public as compassionate humanitarianism. After all, despite its neo-con origins, this is a quintessentially liberal war, justified in the name […]