ASIANOVERLAND.NET KATHMANDU TO LONDON  DAY 125/37: KARACHI,  PAKISTAN

 “24th October, 1980

Glorious time by the poolside of the Intercontinental Hotel.

The ‘affluent’ girls had ….... drum roll ….. LOBSTER.

The rest of us only have effluent.

The front cover of Time Magazine from October 1980 a lit fuse and bomb over our planned itinerary through Iran with an American eagle intently watching and dramatically asks

 “THE GULF

WILL IT EXPLODE?”

I somewhat optimistically wrote -

“Well, not while we were there!

Upon reflection, 40 years later, my comment was way too optimistic, the Gulf exploded, and it’s not finished yet.

Balochistan is one of the four provinces of Pakistan, sharing borders with Punjab and the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to the northeast, and Sindh to the east and southeast. It sits on the Arabian Sea to the south, is beside Iran to the west and Afghanistan to the north and northwest.

Balochistan occupies the very southeasternmost portion of the Iranian Plateau, and is Pakistan’s largest province in terms of land area, forming the southwestern region of the country, but is the least populated. Its provincial capital and largest city is Quetta, but we won’t visit Quetta on this overland, as we definitely won’t be travelling through Iran. The war between Iran and Iraqw is hotting up, so us tourists won’t be welcome any time soon.

The Iran–Iraq War  began on Day 5 of this Overland, 22 September 1980, when Iran was invaded by neighbouring Sadam Hussein’s  Iraq. American support for Sadam’s Ba'athist Iraq during the Iran–Iraq War, included several billion dollars' worth of economic aid, the sale of dual-use technology, non-U.S. origin weaponry, military intelligence, and special operations training.

U.S. government support for Iraq was not a secret and was frequently discussed in open sessions of the Senate and House of Representatives. American views toward Iraq were not enthusiastically supportive in its conflict with Iran, and activity in assistance was largely to prevent an Iranian victory. This was encapsulated by Henry Kissinger when he remarked, "It's a pity they both can't lose."

↑ Day 124 ↓ Day 126