One country is on America’s hit list; and the US recently succeeded in persuading the United Nations to impose sanctions on it. The other is America’s close ally, on whom the US showers billions of dollars in aid and military hardware. The irony is that both countries are ideologically much closer to each other than either is to the United States. I am talking, of course, about Iran and Pakistan.

Let’s start with their official titles. Both nations label themselves as The Islamic Republic of…; and they truly are. Both follow the repressive Sharia Law; Iran as official policy and Pakistan in everything but name. The sanctions against Iran are in retaliation for that country developing nuclear weapons technology. The fact is that Iran is still years away from having the capability to manufacture a nuclear weapon. Pakistan already has an established nuclear weapons stockpile, is well known as the biggest nuclear weapons proliferator on the planet and, furthermore, is home to a rogue scientist against whom charges have been proved that he sold nuclear technology to America’s biggest foes, such as North Korea, Iran and Libya. In effect, America is punishing the pupils and rewarding the teacher. Is it any wonder that America’s foes don’t take her seriously?

So is it OK for America to exhibit such blatant double standards? Sure it is, if you believe the words of US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Michael Mullen. He says its fine for the US to support Pakistan's nuclear arsenal, while condemning the nuclear ambitions of what the US considers rogue nations. He also mentioned in passing that Pakistan's need to use nuclear weapons against India, in order to feel safe, was justified.

Perhaps the admiral has not heard the views of Majeed Nizami, a Pakistani media mogul who owns two national newspapers and a television channel. During a recent speech at a function given in his honour, he openly advocated unleashing nuclear war against India. "Don't worry if a couple of our cities are also destroyed in the process," he casually remarked. Incidentally, one of his papers publicly declared that the United States government was being behind every terrorist incident in the world, including the Times Square attack. And don’t think Nizami is just an isolated fruitcake. His opinions are shared by millions of Pakistanis and, more importantly, by that country’s military establishment and intelligence service, the ISI. But, apparently, that is not worrying the US government or the American media. What does worry them is the danger of an Iran that may or may not develop a nuclear bomb sometime in an undefined future and bad guys like Al Qaeda then getting hold of one. The thought that Al Qaeda is much more likely to acquire or steal a bomb from Pakistan, which already has more than 70 of them, does not occur to them because, hey, Pakistan is an ally.

Recently, the US media has got justifiably agitated at the sentence of death by stoning of two women – one a mere teenager - for the crime of adultery. “Bloody barbarians”, they fulminate; and quite rightly too. Now get this. The Pakistani government sanctions stoning deaths for the same charge in Pakistan and also prescribes the death sentence for blasphemy, which needs nothing more than criticizing Muhammed or Allah. Although the establishment claims that the average Pakistani is against religious extremism, a survey has found that two-thirds of the population favoured Sharia law and giving power to "religious" judges. Other poll findings: 78% favour death for those who leave Islam; 80% favour whippings and cutting off hands for crimes such as stealing. 

There are more examples of America’s double standards, but you get the gist. What I find particularly lamentable is that, apart from a handful of American blogs, like Jawa Report and Jihad Watch, the electronic and print media in the United States has been largely silent on this anomaly. It is only very recently that some American lawmakers have openly spoken out about Pakistan’s duplicity in sponsoring certain extremist groups that they use to pursue their own political agenda vis-à-vis India and Afghanistan; and steadfastly avoiding US efforts to brand them as terrorist organizations. One can only hope that America, even belatedly, remembers that it is the purported champion of what it touts as its “values”; and that the ends – anyway dubious in this scenario – do not always justify the means.