Gen. Musharraf who lies consistently to his own people and the international community has now reneged on his promise to remove the uniform. Washington Bob had already made his comment. But now his boss, Colin Powell has said that it is an internal issue of Pakistan. If so Colin, why are you spreading democracy in Iraq ?
Colin Powell’s boss, the President has made spreading democracy a major action item in his agenda. But even his own Secretary of State does not seem to believe it. Due to the War on Terror, Musharraf is being held to very loose standards. So long as he delivers one Jihadi/month, the United States is closing its eyes to many other atrocities he is committing.
The devil-you-know argument is fine as far as it goes. Its defect is the one that applies to all dictatorships: a policy built on one man is a policy built on sand. Although Mr Musharraf is plainly a man the West can do business with, it is equally plain that he will not be around for ever$(Oev(Ben if he continues to dodge the Islamic extremists’ persistent attempts to assassinate him. Meanwhile, the hope that he would use his presidency to restore and strengthen democratic institutions in Pakistan is waning. Apart from failing to doff his uniform, he has not made his peace with the secular opposition. He has not acted seriously against the madrassas. It is not clear whether he has purged the army and intelligence services of their own religious extremists. Though he has hunted down foreign terrorists who threaten his own life, he has done less to root out Pakistan’s home-grown terrorists, who are increasingly active. And when Abdul Qadeer Khan, the father of Pakistan’s bomb, was found to have been selling nuclear secrets far and wide, Mr Musharraf let him off for an apology.[Another promise broken (subscription reqd)]
