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Pakistan- Blog I  (no comments)

Posted by: Michael Leavitt
Tuesday, September 23rd, 2008

She had come to Washington, D.C. to ask for assistance in some specific projects, but our conversation turned a different direction. I asked if she saw evidence that organizations sympathetic to terrorists were using health care as a means of cultivating support among the people, particularly in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA).

The FATA is a region on the Pakistan/Afghanistan border, where the national government of Pakistan has very little presence and little, if any, control. This is a rugged mountainous region that is simply not controlled by the government. It is the place people believe Osama Bin Laden holds up and, unquestionably, a great deal of terrorist activity is harbored and hatched.

Minister Rehman acknowledged that the combination of the danger and lack of resources means little or no health care is provided by the government. She also indicated there are a number of organizations with terrorist ties who sponsor clinics and other facilities.

I asked the Minister if she thought the people of Pakistan, outside the FATA, had any idea how much help the United States provides now. She made two points in reply. The United States is quite unpopular right now in Pakistan, and people there aren’t aware of the quite-generous assistance we provide in many categories, not just health care.

Neither of her points surprised me.

One exception to that is the help the United States provided after the 2005 earthquake in the Kasmir region. She said that people not only know of the help in that area, but are deeply grateful.

I believe health is a powerful diplomatic tool. I have seen it all over the world. Health is a universal language. When a person or loved one is hurting, whoever helps will be considered a friend. Terrorist organizations like Hezbollah know that. Castro has been using this tactic for a quarter century.

This is a subject to which I have been giving considerable thought. In fact, I am currently writing an article on the subject, based on my experiences over the past four years. I won’t try to frame up my thoughts in this short piece, but I will simply say that I believe health diplomacy should become a significant theme in the fight against terrorism, and that we can do better than we are right now.

Minister Rehman and I had many common thoughts. Our conversation was thought provoking to me. At the conclusion of our discussion, she asked if I would be willing to visit Pakistan. I knew I would be in the region during August and committed to do so.

I did not expect my visit to be at such an intense moment. In the days leading up to my visit to Pakistan, as I monitored the news clips on the political situation, I began to see the name of Minister Rehman quite prominently as a leader of the ruling party’s effort to impeach President Mushariff. As I traveled through Africa, the pressure increased on the President, and on the day I arrived in Islamabad, he resigned.

Needless to say, the two days I was there were exceedingly interesting, both in terms of the understanding of our health diplomacy in the region and the politics of Pakistan. This was my first visit to Pakistan. I don’t pretend to have a sophisticated knowledge of the region, but because I met with many of the major players in the immediate aftermath of the resignation, my observations should at least be written down.

My blog tomorrow will deal with observations after visiting the earthquake zone and the profound improvements in the standing of the United States within that region. The blog following that will recount the experience of watching the government struggle to develop a coalition around a new President.