Pakistan Building Border Fence
September 13, 2005 11:05 AM Subscribe
Pakistan plans on building a fence along the Pakistan/Afghan Border to help curb the war on terror. I wonder if they will incorporate a money slot for terrorists without a fake passport?
Not sure why the aljazeera link suddenly went down, so here's a CNN link to the article.
posted by Guerilla at 11:15 AM on September 13, 2005
posted by Guerilla at 11:15 AM on September 13, 2005
to help curb the war on terror
So its for helping terrorists?
posted by StickyCarpet at 11:33 AM on September 13, 2005
So its for helping terrorists?
posted by StickyCarpet at 11:33 AM on September 13, 2005
Sure - If anyone can come and go as they please then building a fence might pump more cash into the guards hands ensuring more revenue for them and helping terrorists find safe passage through a centralized checkpoint.
posted by Guerilla at 11:40 AM on September 13, 2005
posted by Guerilla at 11:40 AM on September 13, 2005
Oh yeah, and are they going to sink the wall hundreds of feet into the ground to prevent tunnels too?
posted by reality at 12:19 PM on September 13, 2005
posted by reality at 12:19 PM on September 13, 2005
I hope it's a nice little white picket fence. They're so pretty when planted with roses to grow on them. That'll show those mean terraists!
posted by nofundy at 12:33 PM on September 13, 2005
posted by nofundy at 12:33 PM on September 13, 2005
Stopping terrorists is Musharraf's publicly stated reason (and one that could net some funding from the United States). Another reason might be to stop any Afghan refugees from ever coming back. Back in the 1980s and 1990s, there was a huge influx of them into Pakistan (hundreds of thousands), and they stayed for many years, causing a lot of local resentment among Pakistanis. A security wall (maybe along the lines of the Pakistani-Indian border, which is a strip of land between two fences, covered in landmines) would presumably make it more difficult for so many refugees to make it into Pakistan if things go to hell in Afghanistan again. I can't imagine it would be terribly unpopular in Pakistan, although some constituencies like Pashtuns might have a problem with it.
posted by skoosh at 3:59 PM on September 13, 2005
posted by skoosh at 3:59 PM on September 13, 2005
As for the money slot, it's called bakshish (well aware Pakistan is not Arab, no letters please). It's how anything and everything gets done from Marrakech to Mumbai. It's also how officials and cops get paid without stripping the public coffers. In the civilized west we call these payments "users fees."
posted by Pollomacho at 11:43 AM on September 14, 2005
posted by Pollomacho at 11:43 AM on September 14, 2005
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For example, Isreal built a wall, and now their days are filled with kittens and rainbows.
posted by SweetJesus at 11:09 AM on September 13, 2005