The insanity clause "Deadly Embrace between America and Pakistan"

K Tsuchiya . (Japan)
From The economist May 7th,2011
http://www.economist.com/node/18651382
35 words 2 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. Pushtun
    a member of the mountain people living in the eastern regions of Afghanistan
    The Taliban, moreover, are predominantly ethnic Pushtuns, like many Pakistanis.
  2. rogue state
    a state that does not respect other states in its international actions
    If it were located anywhere else, Pakistan—which also has the world’s worst record on nuclear proliferation—might be treated as a rogue state.
  3. duplicitous
    marked by deliberate deceptiveness
    You might think it also seems unbelievable that Pakistan could be so breathtakingly duplicitous and take such a risk of antagonising America, its most important ally.
  4. ingrain
    produce or try to produce a vivid impression of
    Americans come and go, but India will be there forever, and deeply ingrained in the Pakistani security establishment are the beliefs first, that India is the real enemy, and second, that to remain safe from it, Pakistan needs the “strategic depth” of a friendly Afghan neighbour.
  5. manhunt
    an organized search for a person, especially a suspect
    But in this case the missing object was the target of perhaps the most expensive manhunt in history.
  6. go deep
    extend in importance or range
    The links built up during the two insurgencies between the ISI, the army and the militants go deep.
  7. hanker
    desire strongly or persistently
    That would be a catastrophe for the war in Afghanistan, for India’s hopes of a prosperous future in a calmer region and, most of all, for the vast majority of Pakistanis, who show little sign of hankering for harsh clerical rule.
  8. come in handy
    be useful for a certain purpose
    You never know when the world’s most-wanted man might come in handy.
  9. spook
    a mental representation of some haunting experience
    In the 1950s the two countries’ spooks got on famously.
  10. breathtaking
    causing awe or astonishment
    You might think it also seems unbelievable that Pakistan could be so breathtakingly duplicitous and take such a risk of antagonising America, its most important ally.
  11. mislaid
    lost temporarily
    UNDER your own nose is often the last place you look for something you have mislaid.
  12. secede
    withdraw from an organization or polity
    Nor, despite Pakistan’s role in arranging his opening to China, was Richard Nixon much help when East Pakistan seceded to become Bangladesh in 1971—though he managed to antagonise India by sending an aircraft-carrier into the Bay of Bengal.
  13. hankering
    a yearning for something or to do something
    That would be a catastrophe for the war in Afghanistan, for India’s hopes of a prosperous future in a calmer region and, most of all, for the vast majority of Pakistanis, who show little sign of hankering for harsh clerical rule.
  14. ingrained
    deeply rooted; firmly fixed or held
    Americans come and go, but India will be there forever, and deeply ingrained in the Pakistani security establishment are the beliefs first, that India is the real enemy, and second, that to remain safe from it, Pakistan needs the “strategic depth” of a friendly Afghan neighbour.
  15. connivance
    agreement on a secret plot
    It seems highly unlikely that the Pakistani terrorists who attacked Mumbai in November 2008, for example, did so without some official connivance.
  16. topple
    fall down, as if collapsing
    The strategy of using Islamist militants to topple a big power worked well in Afghanistan and was tried again against India in Kashmir.
  17. go to war
    commence hostilities
    Yet when Pakistan went to war with India in 1965, America stayed neutral.
  18. succumb
    give in, as to overwhelming force, influence, or pressure
    So on September 11th 2001, Pakistan’s then dictator, Pervez Musharraf, according to his memoirs, thought hard before succumbing to America’s threats and offering help in the looming war in Afghanistan.
  19. duplicity
    the act of deceiving or acting in bad faith
    In fact, you would be wrong: high-risk duplicity has long been the hallmark of Pakistani foreign policy.
  20. insurgency
    an organized rebellion aimed at overthrowing a government
    The links built up during the two insurgencies between the ISI, the army and the militants go deep.
  21. predominantly
    much greater in number or influence
    The Taliban, moreover, are predominantly ethnic Pushtuns, like many Pakistanis.
  22. selective
    characterized by very careful or fastidious choice
    The army has been selective in the extremists it has attacked.
  23. drone
    make a monotonous low dull sound
    It has tolerated hugely unpopular drone attacks on Taliban and al-Qaeda targets in its territory.
  24. recklessness
    the trait of acting without caution
    For fear of finding something worse

    Mr Zardari is right: it is a policy of almost lunatic recklessness.
  25. hang on
    fix to; attach
    Some members of the Inter-Services Intelligence or ISI, Pakistan’s spy agency, probably thought it a good idea to hang on to Mr bin Laden.
  26. fickle
    liable to sudden unpredictable change
    “Deadly Embrace”, a recent book on the America-Pakistan relationship, by Bruce Riedel, a former CIA officer who chaired a review ordered by Barack Obama of policy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, shows that Pakistan has long seen the United States as a fickle friend.
  27. roam
    move about aimlessly or without any destination
    It has let hundreds of CIA agents roam about.
  28. whereabouts
    the general location of someone or something
    Denying in the Washington Post this week any Pakistani knowledge of Mr bin Laden’s whereabouts these past ten years, Pakistan’s president, Asif Ali Zardari, resorted to a familiar defence.
  29. withstand
    resist or confront with resistance
    It assumes India will withstand almost any provocation.
  30. hand over
    to surrender someone or something to another
    It has also captured and handed over al-Qaeda fighters—670 of them by 2006 according to Mr Musharraf, including in 2003 Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, alleged mastermind of the 9/11 attacks.
  31. crushing
    physically or spiritually devastating
    Yet Pakistan has also done much to help the Afghan Taliban rebuild itself after crushing defeat in 2001.
  32. lie in
    originate (in)
    The reasons lie in Pakistan’s tortured relations with America, with Islamist extremism and with India.
  33. ditch
    a long narrow excavation in the earth
    It assumes America is too dependent on Pakistan’s help to ditch it again.
  34. prosperous
    in fortunate circumstances financially
    That would be a catastrophe for the war in Afghanistan, for India’s hopes of a prosperous future in a calmer region and, most of all, for the vast majority of Pakistanis, who show little sign of hankering for harsh clerical rule.
  35. get on
    get on board of (trains, buses, ships, aircraft, etc.)
    In the 1950s the two countries’ spooks got on famously.
Created on Sun May 15 01:14:14 EDT 2011 (updated Sun May 15 01:16:11 EDT 2011)

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