The Usual Ally

By Mohsin Hamid

I remember, as a boy in Lahore, the moment I learned Pakistan had become, once again, America's ally. I was with my cousin in front of my grandfather's house. It had been raining, and water stood an inch deep on the lawn. Armed with three bricks, the two of us were battling nature. I would put a brick down and move onto it. My cousin would step onto the one I had left, and then he would hand forward the brick he had been standing on a moment before. We were most of the way across when my mother told us to come in. I was told we were now allied with America against the Soviets in Afghanistan. "Cool," I said. We were with the good guys, and we would win. I had seen enough cartoons and films to have no doubt about it.

The war went on for the rest of my childhood, but it was mainly a distant thing. Still, as I got older I realized odd things were going on. Our dictator was giving speeches about transforming Pakistan into a society based on his interpretation of Islam. Painted images of F-16s given by America were appearing on the backs of buses under the words GOD IS GREAT. Armed college students were telling women to cover their heads.

I went to college in America soon after the Soviets were defeated. Surprisingly, few Americans I met seemed to think of Pakistan as an ally. Fewer still knew where Pakistan was. After the war, America turned its back. Aid and military supplies were cut off. My friends back home were shocked by this. I, living in America, was less surprised. In America, the murky, unknown places of the world are blank screens: stories of evil can be projected on them with as little difficulty as stories of good.

Now Pakistan is again dragged to the front line. There was already tension between graduates of religious madrasahs and those of prep schools. But since the last Afghan war, Pakistan has been struggling toward a compromise between these groups. Such compromises evolve slowly, and are nourished by stability. In acting now, Americans must consider the consequences of projecting a war film onto what is not a blank screen at all. They must have compassion as they weigh the impact of polarizing millions of people in the name of justice. In Pakistan, my friends and family are frightened, as they should be when the most powerful military in the world is sent to do a task best accomplished by schoolteachers, police forces, persuasion and time.

Mohsin Hamid is the author of Moth Smoke, a novel