Read the signs By S Tariq

Pakistani Armed Forces Delegation led by a two-star general officer was recently offloaded from their aircraft, detained at Dulles Airport in Washington and subjected to insulting behaviour, while on their way to the CENTCOM headquarters in Tampa. The incident took place because the leader of the delegation fatigued from flying had innocently passed a remark to one of the cabin crew that he hoped this was his last flight. Consequently in protest, the delegation cancelled their US itinerary and decided to immediately return home.
While reports say that the US authorities tendered an apology over the incident, their spokesman talking to newsp-ersons on television, merely regretted the affair and tried to justify it as a result of the peculiar threat environment that the US nation is facing today.

Well Mr Spokesman, your regrets are not enough and your remarks about the state of the US nation are grossly understated. What you should have said was that “you were sorry that the incident occurred because the US nation is suffering from Paranoia, Phobia, Delusions of Grandeur and Psychosis. As such the action at Dulles Airport may be forgotten and attributed as the outcome of sick minds.”
It was good that the delegation decided that enough was enough and returned home, but I think that in a gesture of magnanimity the armed forces of Pakistan should have offered to send a team of psychiatrists to treat and cure a sick ‘ally’.
In a more serious vein, this incident should not be taken lightly by our leadership, who in the best traditions of their ancestors must act with pride and honour. We should send a clear and unambiguous message, much like the one sent by the delegation itself, that it was not a group of Pakistani armed forces officers, but the State of Pakistan that was insulted by the ‘sickos’ at Washington Airport.
The US must be told in unambiguous terms that alliances are held together by mutual respect and reciprocity, not by the type of incidents like the one that was perpetrated at Dulles Airport. There are no doubts in anybody’s minds that the US or NATO cannot win the war against terror without Pakistan’s help and this help will be more effective if it has the backing of the people of Pakistan. If a notion to the contrary exists, then it is the result of a reasoning process that is both naïve and flawed