I STOPPED by my chemist the other day, trying to catch him before he took his annual two-week holiday home to Iraq. With tears in his eyes, he told me that the situation there was at the point where he could not take his children anymore. The carnage at Karachi airport fresh in my mind, I extended my sympathies.

“The difference is,” he said, “Pakistan has a strong army and intelligence to fight these animals. We in Iraq have nothing.”

A stranger in a strange land can see what Pakistan’s elite cannot: the barrier to the bloodthirsty hordes is Pakistan’s armed forces. Most go to meet their Maker leaving behind only young orphans and pitiful pensions. No plots or perks for many. Yet these are the people who are denigrated day after day.

Saad Gul

Falls Church, VA, USA

Published in Dawn, June 15th, 2014