Right Whale - you are right on.
I say we give Pervez a little more time. People are getting all up in arms about his declaring a state of emergency, well, people are forgetting:
a.) That the Supreme Court was seriously undermining the prosecution of the Islamists. This all started unwinding because of the clean out of that Islamist rat’s nest - the Red Mosque.
b.) The Islamists were kicking the a$$ of the Frontier Guide (a sort of homeboy militia rife with corruption and sloth) in Swat. It was out of control. Desertions were wholesale and the Islamists had managed to get within 100 miles of Islamabad and it’s nukes. Couple that with the bombing of Benazir Bhutto’s welcome home parade...Something had to be done.
c.) The Pakistani merchant class is firmly behind Musharraf. The economy of Pakistan has improved every year that he has been in power.
I say let’s give this thing some more time.
About Benazir Bhutto - Beware. She’s the Pakistani Pelosi, people. Her govt was 1 of 4 in the whole wide world that recognized the Taliban in Afghanistan. And her corruption? I wouldn’t want to touch that with a 10 foot pole.
(P.S I’m no expert on Pakistan but I did sleep at a Holiday Inn Express last night.)
You make good sense...so why are we trying to broker a power sharing deal with Bhutto?
One more thing about Benazir:
You call house arrest a bad thing? I don’t know. Within 12 hours of arriving back in the country you are bombed and a bunch of people are killed. But there you are sitting in your villa, protected by security and receiving a US Envoy for tea. After that you are able to give interviews on the veranda with every major media outlet in the WORLD.
And the house arrest only lasted what - 48 hrs?
Please.
Umm-first of all,ever since General Ayub Khan came to power in the late 1950s,the Pakistani army has always controlled critical policy decisions-like those relating to India,China,nukes,radical Islam... & in later years,the Taliban/Afghanistan.Benazir recognised the Taliban,because if she wouldn’t the Army would ensure she would.
About her corruption-ofcourse she is very corrupt.But only as corrupt as the largest industrial & welfare organisation in Pakistan-which happens to be the Pakistani army,headed by a General Pervez Musharraf.
About the economy,well it usually grows big time,when you have Uncle Sam pouring in tons of civil & military aid & when the Japanese had also lifted their aid ban(after Sept.11).You really don’t need to do much.The same was witnessed after the US sewed up alliances with Ayub Khan & Zia Ul Haq-though both would lead their country to later disaster-where Musharraf is headed.
About the Supreme Court-umm what’s the purpose of a judiciary if it can’t ask the government for accountability????Might as well wind it up-which Musharraf has done.All it did was ask the government for an explanation on people who had disappeared in connection with anti-terror operations.As well as question the legitimacy of privatisation/sale of government assets to people who were close to Musharraf & his cronies.
Same goes for the Swat valley-the Paki army has adopted a 2 handed approach.Use some heavy force to put up a show,while concentrating on appeasing the insurgents-didn’t work out well.But don’t expect them to stay down if you think Islamabad is in sight.These insurgents are localised with ethnic/sectarian characteristics-much like other Islamists in Pakistan.They will fight with each other as much as they fight against Uncle Sam or the Paki army.