USA-OHIO: PAKISTAN "OUR PARTNER ON TERROR"

Many in Pakistan believe Bush making war on Islam

PESHAWAR, Pakistan - It took barely a week for the pro-Taliban tribesmen of Pakistan to retaliate for the killing by Pakistan army/NATO coalition forces of 80 students and teachers in a religious school or madrassa in the Bajaur tribal area last month. The suicide bomber hit an army installation in the northern part of the country, killing 42 soldiers.

There have been large demonstrations in Pakistan against the madrassa attack and this frontier town, located barely 25 miles from the Afghan border near the Khyber Pass, has been the focal point of protest against America and the pro-American policies of Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf.

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The Iraq Study Group, under the leadership of former Secretary of State James Baker, is poised to propose a way out of the Iraqi quagmire that has taken more than 600,000 Iraqi lives. Included in the recommendations, it has been reported, is the resolution of the Palestinian issue.
If that came to pass, it would remove the major stumbling block in the way of a peaceful Middle East.

The world viewed from this vantage point on the crossroads of Asia looks different, as does this part of the world viewed from the rarefied world of Washington. One has to wonder if policymakers in Washington have any clue to the history and intricate tribal fabric of the people who inhabit these lands. One could label every bearded man a terrorist but that generalization comes with an expensive and prohibitive price tag.

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1) Many in Pakistan believe Bush making war on Islam