Tragedy In Peshawar

Violent death comes all too regularly to northwestern Pakistan these days — but this one resonates in a different way.  Stephen Vance was one of the very few Americans who dare live and work in that part of Pakistan. He was an aid worker who helped with development projects in the so-called tribal areas, precisely the sort of work that so many people believe is needed to lift people from poverty, defeat militant Islam, and at least begin to improve impressions of the U.S. in that part of the world. As Joe Biden put it not long ago, the outcome of that battle (in the tribal areas) is going to be determined less by bullets than by dollars and determination." The U.S. wants to send more dollars to help; and Stephen Vance was an example of that "determination." Today gunmen shot and killed Vance as he traveled to work. From the AP account: "Police did not speculate on the identity of the assailants, who also killed the man’s driver. But similar attacks against Pakistani security forces and foreigners have been blamed on al-Qaida- and Taliban-linked fighters, who are increasingly active in the region, which borders Afghanistan. The shooting occurred in University Town, an upscale area of the main northwestern city of Peshawar where a top U.S. diplomat was attacked just a few months ago, police official Arshad Khan said…The gunmen blocked the men’s vehicle in a narrow lane with their own car, then opened fire with automatic weapons, said a Western security official in Peshawar." And from our Nick Schifrin in Pakistan: "What’s sad about this story is that he was really embedding himself into the dusty, chaotic life of Peshawar. As the head of the consortium of NGOs that receive U.S. money to help the tribal areas, he was a target, of course, but his security, like so many westerners here, was dependent on keeping a low profile. No bulletproof cars, no big security guards, and a real effort to be local…His death will undoubtedly push western organizations in the northwest to rethink their activities. And that’s unfortunate…"