Why a fence is a really bad idea.

last updated 8 January 2015

Pakistan

Editorial

Aren’t there enough barriers in this world? asked the Karachi Dawn in an editorial. Everyone rejoiced when the Berlin Wall came down. But 15 years later, Israel began fencing in the West Bank, and now Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has proposed building a fence along the border with Afghanistan. The U.S. government loves the idea. It hopes a border fence would stop drug smugglers and ex-Taliban from continually raiding Afghanistan and then retreating to the Pakistani hinterland. In reality, though, we don’t even know exactly where the border is, and trying to demarcate it would simply sour relations between the two countries. Worse, a barrier would prevent “peaceful Afghan citizens” from finding seasonal work here. “Those bent on trouble,” meanwhile, can always “make a mockery of the most stringent border controls.” Pakistanis should tell their government: Don’t fence us in.