AgNoStiC MuSliM
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- Joined
- Jul 11, 2007
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Let us focus on the present and future - the military has been condemned enough for its past forays into ruling the country.And yet continue to do so actively and on a continual basis. Why?
Currently there is no military rule and we have an elected civilian government in charge - therefore, the onus is on these elected representatives to deliver on governance and reforms.
Again, in the present, how is the military, even if it is 'keeping the threat dangling like a Democles' Sword' preventing the elected representatives from governing properly and enacting reforms?And yet they have done so multiple times, and keep this threat hanging like Democles' sword.
As I pointed out to Muse, since the military is not running the government currently, the blame and criticizm for failing to deliver on governance and socio-economic development lies on the elected civilian government, not the military. Criticizm of the military should remain (so long as the military does not impose military rule) in the domain the military is responsible for - the COIN campaign in FATA and Swat, training, acquisitions etc.
When the Taliban are blowing up schools, hospitals, bridges and roads, it is akin to putting the 'cart before the horse' by arguing that the State should not focus on building the capacity of the institutions responsible for eliminating these groups destroying the very infrastructure you wish the State to focus on.But not at the expense of all other crucial sectors such as education and health. TEN TIMES the budget for education and more needed? Really?
And as I pointed out, the State can fund both the COIN/Conventional preparedness of the Military, as well as significantly enhance development funding, by enacting the tax and other institutional reforms mentioned.
I fail to understand why so many of you are so loath to see the tax base in Pakistan expanded and the loss making PSE's costing us billions of dollars a year privatized/restructured, and instead continue to carp about 'small change' (comparatively speaking) available from cutting the defence budget, which would also end up making us weaker to both internal and external threats.