Pakistan: A Failed State
On Wednesday November 26, 2008, ten
members of the terrorist organization LeT carried out attacks on multiple sites
in Mumbai, India that included a railway station, cinema, Jewish community
center, hospital, café, hotels, and the Taj Mahal Palace and Tower that spanned
over four days. They ended up killing
164 people, with at least another 308 wounded.
Terrorist organizations and attacks like this one aren’t out of the
ordinary in Pakistan. In the last 12
years, over 58,000 people have died from terrorism.
Extreme amounts of terrorism is just one reason that Pakistan
is considered a failed state. In 2010,
Pakistan was rated tenth on the Failed State index made each year by the
Foreign Policy magazine, and later ranked thirteenth in 2015. “Failed
states can no longer perform basic functions such as education, security, or
governance, usually due to fractious violence or extreme poverty.” (Global
Policy Forum). Their government lacks control, their economy is
poor, and trying to remain a stable nation has proven to be quite hard. Only about one percent of the country
actually pays taxes, and many people live under the poverty line. Like in most cases, being poor also means
being malnourished and having a variety of other health concerns. This could also be a side effect of the lack
of education.
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Being a nuclear power automatically makes
Pakistan a concern for the rest of the world, but especially after 9/11 they
have become a strategic player in the “war on terror”. If Pakistan continues to become more
unstable, there could be serious consequences for more than just the citizens
inside their borders, especially since they are a nuclear power with a well
formed military.
Works Cited
"Global Policy Forum." Failed States. Web.
14 Jan. 2016.
Mahmood, Basit. "Pakistan: A Failed State That
Desperately Needs Saving From Its Failed
Leaders - The Political Domain." The
Political Domain. 7 July 2015. Web. 14 Jan. 2016.
"The World Factbook." Central Intelligence
Agency. Central Intelligence Agency. Web. 14 Jan. 2016.
"The 2015 Fragile States Index." Foreign Policy
The 2015 Fragile States Index Comments. Web. 14 Jan. 2016.