Riedel: Stop Saying ‘Af-Pak’
The Cairo speech has eaten up most of my day, but last night, Bruce Riedel, the chairman of the Obama administration’s strategy review on Afghanistan and
Jul 31, 20205.2K Shares873.7K Views
The Cairo speechhas eaten up most of my day, but last night, Bruce Riedel, the chairman of the Obama administration’s strategy review on Afghanistan and Pakistan, appeared on a panel at the International Spy Museum to talk about the Pakistani Inter Services Intelligence organization and its relationship to Afghan and Pakistani extremism. (More on that in a subsequent post.) During the Q&A, Riedel went off on the “Af-Pak” neologism that some in the administration use (or usedto use) to indicate the interconnectedness of the two nations:
“„I don’t think anyone on this panel used the terminology “Af-Pak” and I’m glad they didn’t. I think it’s insulting. I don’t mean this personally. But I don’t think when we talk about two countries who are our putative allies and partners we should refer to them in a diminutive way. So let’s leave “Af-Pak” to USA Today and other newspapers that don’t have enough space to spell the names of our partners.
Hajra Shannon
Reviewer
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