Representative Roscoe Bartlett

A stable, democratic, economically thriving Pakistan is considered vital to U.S. interests in Asia. Key U.S. concerns regarding Pakistan include regional terrorism; weapons proliferation; the ongoing Kashmir problem and Pakistan-India tensions; human rights protection; and economic development. A U.S.-Pakistan relationship marked by periods of both cooperation and discord was transformed by the September 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States and the ensuing enlistment of Pakistan as a pivotal ally in U.S.-led counterterrorism efforts.

Top U.S. officials regularly praise Islamabad for its ongoing cooperation, although doubts exist about Islamabad's commitment to some core U.S. interests in the region. Pakistan is identified as a base for terrorist groups and their supporters operating in Kashmir, India, and Afghanistan. Pakistan continues to face serious problems, including domestic terrorism and human rights violations. Since late 2003, Pakistan's army has been conducting unprecedented counterterrorism operations in traditionally autonomous western tribal areas.

The U.S. Congress declared that the killings in Darfur amount to "genocide," while also urging President George W. Bush to call the situation in Sudan "by its rightful name -- genocide." For the first time in its history, the Committee on Conscience of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum has declared a "genocide emergency" in the Sudan, indicating that genocide is imminent or is actually happening in the Darfur region.

Worldwide, 840 million people live with chronic hunger and 8.8 million people die of hunger-related causes each year. Only 10% of these deaths can be attributed to emergencies such as war or catastrophic weather. Most hunger deaths are due to chronic malnutrition caused by inequitable distribution and inefficient use of existing food resources.

Ending hunger is a highly complex challenge. It is increasingly clear that charitable responses and traditional bureaucratic programs, as useful as they may be, are insufficient to carry the day. More importantly, people increasingly recognize that conventional approaches are based on a framework of thinking that is inconsistent with what actually must be done to achieve the end of hunger on a sustainable basis.