[Natural Disasters]
Pakistani Earthquake
I'd love to say something intelligent about the devastation in Pakistan, but I can't think of a thing to add. The country has been ruled by corrupt or incompetent leaders for over half a century, the buildings are made of sand, and India is in a very slow-motion collision with mainland Asia, making Kashmiri earthquakes inevitable. It was a prescription for catastrophe but, as was the case with Katrina, this makes it no less horrific.
2 comments:
Juan Cole has something interesting to say:
http://www.juancole.com/2005/10/at-least-18000-dead-in-major.html
It's brief, so I'll post the pith of what Cole said here:
"The Bush administration should move quickly and visibly to get aid to the survivors (40,000 are wounded). This is an opportunity finally to prove to the Pakistani public that the US is not a fair-weather friend. (The US has on several occasions since 1947 taken up an alliance of sorts with Pakistan, only to drop it when Pakistan was no longer needed. A lot of Pakistanis are worried that the US will do the same thing when the "war on terror" fades. Convincing them otherwise is key to defeating radical Muslim fundamentalism."
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