I am writing a series of articles about my years in India, and am now focusing on the Mughal Empire. It is impossible to do so without recognizing that what is now Pakistan was then part of India.

I have spent a major part of my adult life living and working in the Near East, South and SE Asia. I have had Foreign Service assignments in Vietnam, Thailand and India, and worked in Afghanistan and Vietnam on big private sector transport infrastructure projects. The one place I have never worked; never even traveled to, is Pakistan.

I would be less than candid with you if I told you that I feel deprived by that gap in my experience. Pakistan is one place that I would just as soon skip altogether. (Normally, such a position on my part would result in me being assigned there...) I don’t know how to explain this, except to say that the people that inhabit the place seem to be so volatile; so socially unstable; so radical. I have had enough excitement in my life already, thank you very much. I will pass on Pakistan.

In 1978-1980 I was on what is called a “rotation assignment” in Washington DC. My previous assignment was in Damascus. In Washington, I had a good job as Chief Engineer for the Near East South Asia Regional Bureau, and had responsibility for engineering assistance activities in the Region. At the time, the region extended from Egypt, to India, covering most of the countries in between, including Pakistan. We had good people in the office, and it was a real pleasure to work on the programs in the region.

I remember one day, standing in the D-Street entrance of the Department building (the “Diplomatic Entrance”) when a couple of large 50-passenger busses pulled up outside, and people started filing off of them, entering the building. I learned that they were the evacuated staffers of the American Embassy in Islamabad, which had been overrun and burned by rioting Pakistanis. Our people took refuge in a specially designed barricade room on the top floor. The rioters totally occupied the building and set it on fire. The barricade room was designed with an exit hatch to the roof, and they used that to leave the building and board evacuation helicopters to safety.

What had caused this madness? In Medina, Saudi Arabia, someone tossed an explosive device inside the sacred area. The word spread that it was the US that had done it. That set off the Pakistanis. This was in 1978. Daniel Pearl met his gruesome end in Karachi, several years later. (I wonder how many Americans remember, or even know about Daniel Pearl?)

The point is, the hatred and hair-trigger violence against Americans by Pakistanis is nothing new. It has been going on for a long, long time.

The Pakistani involvement in Afghanistan goes back, too. I remember when we were covertly flying mules into Afghanistan, and air dropping them to the muhajadin. At the time we were supporting the Afghan fighters, countering Russia. We sent them weapons, and money. It was a massive CIA sponsored effort that eventually turned out to be highly successful. Now, the Afghans we were supporting then are our enemies. I have met some of these Afghan muhajadin. They are very impressive, and invariably extol their friendship and regard for their American brothers. They will never forget the American assistance. And we could never have done this without the active cooperation and support of the Pakistan government. So I guess that our relationship with Pakistan flowed from that, and explains why we have supported General Musharaf all these years.

Pakistan, no matter what you think of it, is an important part of the region. It is a recent creation, formed by the exodus of the British Raj from India in 1948, when East Pakistan and West Pakistan were split off from India. Partition set off a blood bath that continues to this day, between Hindu Indians and Muslim Pakistanis and Bangladeshis.

This is one of those situations that is likely to continue on into the future, ad infinitum.

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