The New Middle East: Pakistan (Part One of Four)

With the Middle East going through a second great awakening, or Arab Spring depending on how you chose to word it, it seems important that we take a moment to understand some of the countries in the region that are news-makers on any given day. I’d like to start out with the country of Pakistan.

            The country of Pakistan is south of Afghanistan and northwest of India.  This is the main issue for the country of Pakistan. They do not get along at all with India.  The region that the two countries always get into a dispute about is the region of Kashmir.  To make matters more challenging, both countries have nuclear capabilities. That alone makes the rest of the world both weary and pay closer attention.

            The region of Kashmir involves a certain amount of power and control…in addition to a certain amount of religion.  There have been many wars fought over this region since 1948 when Bangladesh became an independent country a year before (which was formerly known as Eastern Pakistan).  Due to India becoming a larger and more powerful country during the time, Pakistan felt threatened and started putting small troops in the Kashmir region in order to rise up again India and to drive out any forces within the region.  The outcome was less than ideal as India fights the rebellion and a war breaks out with the region.  The outcome involves the United Nations to order a cease fire on both sides and everyone complies. In January of 1966, the “Tashkeut Declaration” was signed which states that neither side will shoot each other.  The great travesty of the treaty is that it has no conditions to solve any of the political issues between the two countries.

            The nuclear issue is rather serious since both nations posses such weapons.  India tested their first successful nuke on May 18, 1974. To the shock of many, Pakistan okays the Nuclear Weapons Program [and their testing]. Then in 1998, India detonates their second nuclear bomb and within a week later, Pakistan responds by testing five nuclear bombs.  In fact, according to the New York Times, the United States has recalled its troops out of the Pakistan-India region.  The latest rounds of Pakistan-India rivalry involves accusations of Pakistan trying to orchestrate an ambush against India; at the same time, Pakistan accuses India of killing Pakistani civilians in a retaliation-type situation.

            The United States is slowly backing out of this particular conflict as well as reevaluating it’s position regarding Pakistan (mainly due to events of the past two years).   It will be interesting to see what happens within the next six-to-eight months regarding this country in the middle east.