Remember those commercials with the duck?
Anyway, point is, the Obama Administration is dropping the term AfPak. Josh Rogin writes on his blog at Foreign Policy. They’re getting rid of it because–surprise!–it “does not please people in Pakistan.”
Personally, I don’t think there’s anything inherently wrong with the term. Washington people liked it because it’s catchy and it summed up their thinking that Pakistan and Afghanistan are closely connected issues. Whatever. Plus, it works well on Twitter.
But when you think about how it sounds to the outside world, it’s probably not a good PR move. When government officials use the term all the time, it sounds like they don’t realize that Afghanistan and Pakistan are two different places. Or they don’t care. It is, as Richard Holbrooke admitted, “understandable” that Pakistanis don’t like the phrase.
On a side note:
hehehe. Quack quack !
but on a serious note: good commentary on why the term is bad PR to the “outside world” . Thanks for sharing.
You know our mayor does that duck’s voice, right?
The mayor of Montclair does the Aflac duck voice? That is absurd. This is the bike riding guy, right?