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Feedback ForumNOW wants to hear from you! Send us your opinions, reactions and ideas about "Dinner With the President"Submissions for this question are no longer being accepted. Previously submitted comments appear below. Comments may have been edited for content or space. Poster: Aitezaz Ahmed Comment: It was alarming and also nauseating to watch David Brancaccio's interview with Sabiha Sumar. Thank you PBS for providing a forum for a hatchet job on democracy and human rights in Pakistan.i wonder what the host what thinking (or even smoking)while conducting the interview. Almost every statement made by Sumar about Musharraf and the current state of affairs in Pakistan is in direct contradiction to reality and history and the truth. Musharraf is an autocratic military dictator who has no love for liberty, democracy and human rights and whose every action is dictated first and last by his need for self-survival and a desire to hold on to power perpetually. The list of Musharraf's misdeeds is almost as long as Sumar's delusionary view of Pakistan but includes gross violations of human rights, repression of the press, muzzling of the media, destruction of the institutions of civil society, rampant corruption, kidnappings and killings of political opponents of the regime (e.g. Nawab Akbar Bugti, to name only the most prominent example) and active fostering of jihadi militant groups. For a true picture of Musharraf's Pakistan please read the reports by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, Amnesty International etc. and please see Missing in Pakistan an excellent documentary by Ziad Zafar. Sabiha Sumar is certainly entitled to her opinions but i was stunned by Brancaccio's passive and bovine acceptance of this piece of pro-dictatorship propaganda during the interview. It could only happen if the host did no homework on the subject and suffered from intellectual laziness. The alternative explanations would be either a blind, malignant, wilful ignorance of reality or PBS' slavish propagation of the Bush Administration mythology of Pakistan and Musharraf, both of which are too depressing to contemplate. Poster: Sally Tarasoff Comment: So the woman in Islamabad didn't know who her president was? Have you been to rural or even urban America and asked the same question? Americans are so ignorant they believe email that isn't true, for crying out loud! Obama was born overseas in Hawaii. Ok that stumps me that people can be so stupid. However, McCain WAS born overseas, as I was. I would like to know why he can run for president, when it took the help of my senator to get me in the US Army Reserves in 1987, and my place of birth on my military record makes me an other not an US citizen. Like many other military brats I was born overseas and I was jokingly told that I could never run for president. If you look at the State Dept birth certificates for kids like me, our parents are not even listed on our birth certificates and thus they are worthless when trying to prove our genealogy. The DAR will not accept my birth certificate because my parents are not listed. I am an other in every sense of the word. Worse, I live in a nation of people so poorly educated they do not have a clue about our government. That is a bigger tragedy that what happens in Pakistan, IMHO. Please look into these issues. Poster: Kevin Comment: The situation in Pakistan is very similar to the situation in Iran during the rule of Shah -- late sixities. Of course Iran had a larger middle class and some degree of traditional market foces -- Bazar. Once the Shah's the army was out of the equation, The coalition of Mullahs and Bazar was ensued, etc. I want to thank PBS and David for this excellent coverage. Kevin Poster: Peggy Conroy Comment: Your interview with the lady from Pakistan who made the dinner movie was the best show ever! The people who run the govt should all see it if we are ever going to get out of this mess. Thanks Poster: Jeff K. Comment: I didn't get to see all of your show but did want to make a few comments. The US shouldn't be promoting democracy so much around the world. After all, we are not actually a democracy but a Democratic Republic. This country was not founded on majority rule, which a democracy is. The majority is not always right and often times ignores the rights and wishes of a minority. A Democratic Republic respects the rights and wishes of minority groups when a democracy won't. If this was what the US were promoting, I'm guessing that the tribal areas of Pakistan would be more open to what the US has to say. Poster: Bill Rieken Comment: The book 'Three Cups of Tea' is about a mountain climber who nearly dies after trying to climb the world's second highest peak K2 in the Karakoram Mountains in northern Pakistan. He was so grateful to the Balti porters who saved his life that he promised to return and build a school for the children of Korphe. His book is an excellent documentary of life in the rugged mountains in northern Pakistan and Afghanistan, It helps Westerners understand how the rural villagers view democracy, and it shows how a single individual can make a big difference by providing good schools which Pakistani children can attend (instead of extremist madrassas that teach fundamentalist Islam only). It's well worth reading to see how am inexpensive yet very effective collaboration can reduce the influence of the Taliban in Pakistan and Afghanistan. * NOTE FROM NOW: We interviewed Greg Mortenson, the author of 'Three Cups of Tea.' For more click here Poster: Amit Comment: The conclusions drawn by your guest are sadly mistaken. Pakistan has had plenty of autocracy over the years and it didn't seem to have made any difference. (At least do some basic research before putting your guests on! Come on! You are PBS for heaven’s sake!) Pakistan's problem is development but whether a democracy or a dictatorship should provide that is an altogether different issue. Look at Pres. Mush., he wasn't ousted by some sort of American policy of pressing for democracy in Pakistan, as implied by your guest. (America has never done any such thing in any amount of real seriousness starting from way back in the 60s! We have in fact been the biggest supporters of Pakistani dictators.) He was ousted because of the same reason dictators everywhere are thrown out for. Perceived excesses. In the case of Pres. Mush., I think he leaves behind a mixed legacy, something which your program never really looked at. On the one hand he pushed as hard as he could against the extremist forces but on the other hand he wasted a lot of the aid that he got on military programs, instead of providing the basic human needs that your guest talked about. Unlike India, which is shackled by Fabian socialism, the communist party, the north-south, east-west ethnic divide, religion (Muslim, Hindu, Sikh, Christian etc.), the Maoist rebels and the caste system; Pakistan is only shackled by its own military and one ethnic divide, Punjabi-Sindhi. (The Afghanis of the NWFP don’t even really count as part of Pakistan and there shouldn’t be a caste system in Islam.) With less factions to appease, not to mention far fewer people, Pakistan should have an easier time of achieving development goals than India. This has sadly been not the case. Of course no one is advocating for the military to be weakened further but the next leader in Pakistan, democratically elected or otherwise, should focus on basic development. Education, healthcare, water, sanitation and roads. This will take good management and an overhaul of the public goods delivery system. That means restructuring the current system. (Talk about entrenched management.) That is a tall order for anybody-dictator, monarch, prime minister or president. I think a good bet is that Pakistan will keep slipping back into oblivion and therefore continue to threaten its neighbors, allies and enemies. Hoping to be proven wrong. Amit Poster: Michael F. Sarabia Comment: In college I learnt (I thought it might be a test question) that Democracy requires an ideological basis and support, that to do whatever one wants, is to act like a child, not good enough. Since then I have seen the problems we find, or create, because we seem to expect all nations and everyone to greet us with flowers as a new Redeemer and will throw flowers at our feed and be forever greateful that we bring Democracy to them. Ugh! Since then I discovered the contradiction in my own way of thinking since we, here, readily accept argument and contradiction in our politics, art, culture, etc. That my nine brothers and sister had different ideas that were accepted but not adopted by the rest seemed to me the most natural way to live happy and content. Now, your movie, Diner With the President, brought to me the realization that nations are like my brothers and sisters, we never came to complete agreement but none of us would trade any of us for another. BECAUSE we believe in Democracy we must agree with what the film director said and repeated (paraphrasing): You must not try to impose your version of Democracy on other nations. She didn't say why, that would be preaching, it is up to me to listen to her words and wonder about the connection between our personal views of Democracy and her version, as stated and understood (or distorted). This increases my tolerance of my relatives and fellow citizens, I still disagree with them but now I can see how I might agree with them if I had not studied Aristotle early in life, well, not THAT early. Thank You very much. Poster: Jim Doman Comment: How ironic that the producer suggest that the U.S. refrain from exporting democracy as long as the middle class is growing in countries like Pakistan. A a major market for her work is in democratic countries which support programs like Now and Independent Lens. Without democracy, her work would have little, if any, voice. Poster: Dr. Fida Mohammad Comment: ms. sumar speaks for a microscopic corrupt rich minority. she is promoting the white man's burden thesis. i beleive she works for some agencies. Poster: Chris Comment: Untied States should work with other cultures on peace not Democracy. Poster: Rebecca Comment: This documentary brings home all too often the importance of stimulating the mind. This simple yet complex framework of imfusing, encourging and dispelling of ideas-education,makes all the differnce in the world to promote or doom human's existance. Instead of speaking about democracy, start with a basic foundation-encourage and implement programs to build and fund schools-start in the rurual areas and move up to the urban areas. This will bring hope to the hopeless. Poster: khalid hafeez Comment: I am from Pakistan and the Woman Sabiha can you ask her is everyone in INDIA is PHD the world's largest democracy? also maybe she is lving in a fantac y land after for 60 years ARMY destroyed ever civilian institution and it was the GENERAL NAMED ZIAUL HAQ who offered the services to the American against the sobviest and supported by the CIA and American dollars brought the Guerilla war to the borders of Pakistan, How can a journalist like DAVID B> acted like a second grader and gave her a free pass I just lost my respect for this program. I used to be the biggest fan. 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