Pakistan and America: destined to be allies? (flood relief suggestions & more)

The following was first offered as a COMMENT yet I saw that this one needed greater visibility:

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Thank you very much for posting all this. There are three things I have been wanting to say to all friends, known and unknown, in the United States.

First, if you donate any money for flood relief in Pakistan, please donate through trusted organizations (Edhi Foundation is all-time good, and many others can be found on the Internet).

Governments everywhere have their own pros and cons (pun intended) but if help from America actually reaches the masses in Pakistan, it will go a long way in rediscovering that amazing bond that existed between the two nations since the very beginning, and which has been sadly forgotten by both (maybe due to bad historians).

This was the second thing, and the last but not least is that money is not the only help that can come to Pakistan from America. Other things can also be done:

(a) There is a large Pakistani community residing outside Pakistan and the priority for many of us here is to mobilize them first. If you could help in mobilizing the Pakistanis living in America for the cause of flood relief, even that would be GREAT.

(b) Please take out some time learning about the real masses of Pakistan. They may turn out to be telling a story very different from what you (and we) know.

(c) Funny it may seem but history of the last seventy years seems to be suggesting that Pakistan and America are destined or doomed to be allies ("the most allied allies" we were once called). Perhaps distasteful for many in America as well as in Pakistan, but destiny itself seems to be throwing this upon both of us like "an option you can't refuse". Let's take ourselves more seriously by finding out WHY we have been bonded together in alliances wanted or unwanted, one way or another, willingly or unwillingly, for so long.

Regards, best wishes and thanks from Pakistan.

Khurram Ali Shafique
Research Consultant,
Iqbal Academy Pakistan.
Personal Homepage http://theRepublicOfRumi.com