Losing Faith in Pakistan’s Future, THE TALIBAN’S NEW TARGET

Source: Spiegel International

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By Gerhard Spörl in Lahore, Pakistan

Photo Gallery: 7 Photos

Arif Ali / AFP

Long a home to Pakistan’s intellectual elite, the tolerant city of Lahore has become a favorite target of the Taliban. The development is causing the country’s leading writer, Ahmed Rashid, whose books are required reading in the West’s military academies, to lose his optimism that the Islamist militants can be defeated.

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Read in the White House

Rashid has been a sensation since then. After the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the White House ordered 28 copies of his book. Then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld met with him to discuss his opinions, and Rashid was showered with invitations from the likes of neocon luminary Paul Wolfowitz and British Prime Minister Tony Blair. President Barack Obama invited him to dinner before his inauguration, at a time when Obama himself was apparently not very well informed about the situation in Afghanistan.

Read the three part article as well as background features and opinions on Pakistan at:

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,710065,00.html

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