Militocracy

Pakistan’s army, at 550,000 men, is too small to match India’s 1.1m, but too big for Pakistan. The armed forces eat up 16% of the government’s budget, whereas education gets 1.2%. Because the armed forces are powerful, the government is weak; and the soldiers’ frequent interventions in Pakistani politics exacerbate this imbalance and undermine democracy. (link)

I was going to make a comment to the effect that, you know, stupid and heavily armed is no way to go through life, son. But then I thought several things:

• It's hard to say it's worse than being clever but unable to defend yourself.
• We have a crapsack education system, but we make up for that by having it be insanely expensive.
• Except for teachers.
• They should be lifeguards.
• We're not exactly living in a pacifist paradise, either.
• No one asked me, but if it's my Army, you don't get a medal unless you were actually involved in fighting of some kind. Near as I can tell, that didn't happen to David Petraeus until he was commanding a division.
• When I was a kid I got a merit badge for reading, and even I thought: "who are we kidding?"
• I didn't get any other merit badges.
• I wonder what's for dinner.

So, um, Pakistan, I don't know where you got this crazy idea that being heavily armed and ill-educated will benefit you, but I, and the people of Wasilla, urge you to reconsider.