Three Cups of Tea, the lovely book by mountaineer-turned-humanitarian Greg Mortenson, has captivated American readers and held its position on the New York Times best seller list since January 2007.
Nonetheless, many Americans have no idea about the humanitarian tragedy unfolding in Pakistan, where more than 2.4 million people have fled the Taliban in the Swat Valley and countless more have fled the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, or FATA, better known here as the “tribal belt.”
Ahmed Rashid, author of the Taliban and Descent into Chaos, has written an excellent editorial in today’s Washington Post that spells out clearly why we as a nation must help the people of Pakistan. He writes:
The mass exodus from the battle zone to the southern plains has been the largest and fastest displacement of people since the genocide in Rwanda 15 years ago, U.N. officials say. … U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has warned that the United Nations may be forced to cut all its services, including food supplies, by July if its appeal for $543 million in emergency aid goes unmet. After nearly a month, donor countries have pledged only 20 percent of that. The International Committee of the Red Cross — the only aid agency working with civilians wounded from the fighting and with those civilians who have remained in the destroyed towns of Swat — seeks $38 million, which would double its Pakistan budget for this year.
Rashid notes that President Obama has pledged $310 million to help the people of northwest Pakistan, making him “the the only world leader concerned” about them. Arab and European nations have so far not coughed up any major aid packages.
Times are tough, but I encourage the American people to follow Obama’s lead and send what they can to help the people of Pakistan. Many excellent aid groups are hard at work there, including Greg Mortenson’s CAI, Mercy Corps and Doctor’s Without Borders.
As Rashid points out:
Strategically, much is at stake. The fighting in Swat is not just against extremism but for the hearts and minds of future generations.
We are fighting an insurgency in Afghanistan and Pakistan against the Taliban and al Qaeda, and in any counter-insurgency effort the best weapons don’t shoot. By helping to stabilize Pakistan, we will not only make the world a better place, we will make our own nation safer. Unless that happens — and happens fast, the world is “sleepwalking its way to defeat” in Pakistan, as Rashid writes. And the cost of doing too little could be enormous.