| I confess. It was me. The Paks just looked so innocent, they were so happy, sitting around and playing with their stoopid puppies and kittens and fluffy bunnies all day. I just couldn't resist it. |
 BRUSSELS: President General Pervez Musharraf has blamed the West for breeding terrorism in his country by bringing in thousands of mujahideen to fight the Soviet Union in Afghanistan and then leaving Pakistan alone a decade later to face the armed warriors.
| "An' we wudn't doin' nuffin'!" |
Musharraf told the European ParliamentÂ’s foreign affairs committee on Tuesday that Pakistan was not the intolerant, extremist country often portrayed by the West, and terrorism and extremism were not inherent in Pakistani society.
| Neither are turbans, automatic weapons, daily exhortations to jihad, and hatred of all things foreign and domestic... |
“Whatever extremism or terrorism is in Pakistan is a direct fallout of the 26 years of warfare and militancy around us. It gets back to 1979 when the West, the United States and Pakistan waged a war against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan,” Musharraf told EU lawmakers. “We launched a jihad, brought in mujahideen from all over the Muslim world, the US and the West… We armed the Taliban and sent them in; we did it together. In 1989 everyone left Pakistan with 30,000 armed mujahideen who were there, and the Taliban who were there,” he said, adding that Pakistan had “paid a big price for being part of the coalition that fought the Soviet Union.”
Musharraf said that the scourge of terrorism had been eliminated from Pakistan and that efforts were underway to root out extremism, but this would take time. Musharraf also urged Pakistani expatriates to invest in Pakistan and to send maximum foreign exchange to boost the countryÂ’s economy. The president stressed that they play a role in enhancing the dignity and prestige of the country. He said that Pakistan and Belgium had strong economic ties, which needed further expansion. |