I See Your Point

12 attackers besieged the convoy for 25 minutes and all 12 got away.

I've been hearing that there are some readers that took exception with the way I wrote about the Lahore situation. After re-reading the post I understand why you would feel that I was disrespectful about the situation and I probably should've edited it however I think that post was more for me than for you. The whole situation is intensely frustrating for me as a Pakistani. The shock and horror wore off quite quickly and a depression and indifference took over. The situation always gets worse and the government always ignores it. The Mariott Hotel bombing was supposed to be "the Pakistani 9/11" and Zardari and the rest of the government said "we'll catch the cowardly terrorists behind these acts" and everyone forgot about it. Then Mumbai happened and shocked everyone, I personally was concerned because of the risk of Hindu-Muslim riots which would've been disastrous but thank God that didn't happen (that is also one of the reasons why I treated it more seriously). But Mumbai happened and they started blaming the ISI and Pakistan and Pakistanis started getting angry that they were under attack because their government for some reason couldn't admit to the fact that some terrorists are born in Pakistan, that Pakistan has a problem with terrorism. And still, this situation had the opportunity to be a catalyst for change. Maybe finally after an attack on national heroes the Pakistani people would finally show anger towards the Taleban, Lashkar e Tayyiba, and the inability of the government to do anything about it. But now it seems like that's not going to be the case since there are already people blaming Indian intelligence and the Tamil Tigers. It's frustrating to me as a Muslim when other Muslims can't condemn the Taleban or Lashkar e Tayyiba or yes even Hamas because "they do good too." Just because you build tents for displaced earthquake victims or hand out food packages to your people doesn't erase the fact that you destroy families when you take the lives of innocent men, women, and children. The entire situation is immensely disappointing when the leader of Pakistan doesn't even address the people of Pakistan directly but instead leaves a prepared message to be released to the press; "we'll catch the cowardly terrorists behind these attacks." The ineffectiveness of this government would be comical if the leaders weren't a reflection of the people. So I'm sorry that I couldn't treat the situation with the importance that it deserved. Of course it's a big deal but I seriously doubt that it changes anything within Pakistan. I just hope I'm wrong.