Word: scandalizer
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Like many Pakistanis, I am unsure of how to react to the proliferation scandal surrounding Abdul Qadeer Khan, the "father of the Islamic Bomb." Khan admitted last week to providing nuclear technology to Iran, Libya and North Korea but was pardoned by Pakistan's President, General Pervez Musharraf. The case exposes deep conflicts in my feelings about my country, our policies and the direction we are taking...
...Because it is widely believed that Khan could not have acted without the army's knowledge, the proliferation scandal also raises the issue of whether military rule is desirable in Pakistan. I have for most of my life despised the idea of dictatorship, of citizens being told what is right for them by an unelected, unaccountable body. I have vivid memories, even a decade and a half later, of the disastrous policies initiated by General Zia ul-Haq in the 1980s, policies of Islamization, of news broadcasts in Arabic, intimidation of journalists, oppression of women...
...Finally, I recognize the value of truth and transparency, both of which appear to be lacking in the government's handling of the proliferation scandal. The cloak of secrecy is thrown over investigations too frequently in Pakistan. We are?because of our history, our often hostile neighbors and our own mistakes?an insecure nation that too often hides behind the justification of national security. But at this moment, a fragile government coalition exists to change decades of misguided policies?policies of hostility and interventionism toward India and Afghanistan, policies of Islamization and religious militancy, and policies that led to economic...
...find myself feeling, perhaps shamefully, that I would like this scandal to pass quietly. Not because I am unaware of the horrors of nuclear war, the perils of dictatorship or the importance of truth. But because despite being aware of these things, I believe Pakistan needs its nuclear deterrent, I support Musharraf and I think a public inquiry is dangerous at this time in our history. We must cooperate with other countries and with the U.N. to shut down the proliferation network that has been allowed to develop in Pakistan. And we must stay the course in our pursuit...
...escapades, yet were on the record defending Oliver North’s lies to Congress in the Iran-Contra affair? Indeed, the asymmetry between the Right’s panicked attitude about sex and its causal stance on violence is reflected in the basic partisan dichotomy of scandal in this country: in our lifetimes, Democratic scandals tend to be sexual, while Republican ones are often violent. It was in 1984, the year most college sophomores were born, that Gary Hart’s presidential candidacy imploded because it was discovered that he had had an affair. And, in a formative...