Unless Musharaff can continue to have the reliable backing of the Pakistan military, he hasn’t a chance of staying in power, or of assisting to suppress Al Qaida and Taliban formations in Pakistan. That means he will have to provide equipment to his armed forces that may not have direct application to the anti-Taliban mission, but which his military feel they need to carry our their overall mission.
We ought not to object too much to this or we will find ourselves worse off than we already are.
The failure of the Pakistan military to maintain cohesiveness would be disastrous, and could easily lead to civil war and regional breakup.
To be clear, the breakup of Pakistan would risk nuclear war between Pakistan and India in the immediacy of the breakup, and risk proliferation of Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal to non-state actors in the longer term.
It is in the national interest of the United States to see Pakistan remain intact.
Musharraf gives & gets all the big toys he wants from the Chinese for his boys.China is giving him around 200 new fighter aircraft,an equal number of new tanks & 8 frigates.That relationship will go on,irrespective of what Washington wants or says.Heck,it’s got more muscle since the Pakis can save lots of foreign exchange thanks to US Aid for their American weapons.Pakistan’s military spending is decided by Musharraf & his generals,not himself alone.Pakistan has always spent a greater amount of it’s GDP on defense than India has-for over 40 years.Irrespective of whether they want to take on terror or not.