Just as we were all getting used to “AfPak” as the insidery way of referring to the comingled problem area of Afghanistan and Pakistan, apparently the State Department is pulling a switcheroo:
State Department inspector general Harry Geisel, testifying about waste, fraud and abuse in Afghanistan and Pakistan to the House oversight subcommittee on national security, called the region “PakAf.”
….”Is that just you,” [Rep. Jeff] Flake asked, “or are others expected to do that?”
Geisel said he would check and, a few minutes later, offered this. “My staff has been kind enough to explain to me how AfPak became PakAf. And the answer is it was Ambassador Richard Holbrooke who started using PakAf.”
You have been put on notice. There will be a test on this stuff later today.
