I’ve been digging Kalsoom Lakhani’s blog Changing Up Pakistan after meeting her at an event recently, but this guest-post really takes the prize for boldness. It’s a full-on critique of the Pakistani military and its outsized role as accellerant of social/political dysfunction.

It’s also not really for non-Pakistanis to comment on, I figure. This is an internal conversation and apparently a painful one. Dialogue like this tends to get shut down when its participants feel that outsiders are pointing at the dirty laundry. So I’ll pass it on without much comment. All I’d say is that from the perspective of reading the critique, it might be productive to offer an explanation for why the military gets to play this role. After all, systemic dysfunction doesn’t come from nowhere, and it usually has a constituency.

And now that I’ve said that, I back away gently.