Why Is Pakistan Such A Mess? - Ahmed Rashid

Afghanistan and Pakistan seem to be miles apart in their cultural and political development. Afghanistan's new first lady is a Christian Lebanese-American who is out front about her support for women's rights, birth control, internally displaced refugees, and other progressive issues, while in Pakistan two Christians were recently burned to death by an extremist Muslim mob.

From a cultural standpoint, the two countries are going in opposite directions. Afghanistan is becoming more and more tolerant, as it was in the past, before the ignorant Saudi, American, and Pakistani governments invited the Mujahideen there to give the Soviet Union a nosebleed, and Pakistan is becoming less and less tolerant because their decades-long support for the Taliban has finally boomeranged on them.

Video Title: Why Is Pakistan Such A Mess? - Ahmed Rashid. Source: DLX Area 1. Date Published: June 29, 2013. Description:

Ahmed Rashid, former Pakistani revolutionary, journalist and an expert on Taliban, explains why Pakistan is in a such a mess. He lists the factors that led Pakistan to the situation it is in right now. Link to the original video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2U56MnmmN0c

This is an excerpt from a speech that journalist Ahmed Rashid made at the American Academy in Berlin on October 24, 2012, called, "On the Brink: Pakistan, Afghanistan, and the West - An Update."