Geelani seems to be caught in the same dilemma that Dr. Martin Luther King was between his 1967 Riverside Church speech "Beyond Vietnam — A Time to Break Silence" and his assassination exactly one year later.

The dilemma is how a religious and non-violence oriented leader confronts a violent empire which uses violence to control a people through fear.

While the Taliban certainly represent a questionable non-state actor in any revolutionary cause, the Pakistani government represents a less traditional 'non-state actor' in the person of the U.S. headquartered 'corporate financial Empire' pushing violence for its own selfish and deceptive benefits — regardless of the negative externality costs (death) to many ordinary Pakistanis.

Geelani's outcome by rocking the boat between these two non-state actors could well be the same as King's — if the Taliban don't get him first

Alan MacDonald
Sanford, Maine