Big Oops in Pakistan

[richlevy]

It appears our democratic allies in the war on terror are becoming less democratic. I wonder if Bush is taking notes. I wonder what he saw when he looked into Musharraf's soul.

So this all started when we helped overthrow the government in Iran. We supported a dictator, who was overthrown by a government we didn't like. So we supported a dictator (Iraq) in a war against Iran at the same time we supported Islamist fighters in Afghanistan against a Soviet-backed government. We changed our minds about Iraq when the dictator invaded Kuwait, making our non-democratic allies in the oil producing states nervous. So we went to war with Iraq and ignored Afghanistan when the Soviets were pushed out, creating a power vacuum.

A little over 10 years later, Islamists from Saudi Arabia and a few other countries, supported by some of the Islamists we supported against the Soviets, blow up the World Trade center, so we invade Afghanistan and while we're at it invade Iraq.

Meanwhile, we rely on Saudi Arabia, which is not a democracy, as one of our allies, and pump in support to Musharraf in Pakistan, which sort of looks like a democracy on paper, like Iraq with Hussein, but whose leader seems to be taking on dictatorial powers.

And now the gloves come off and we have an open-ended state of emergency following an election, with Musharraf acting more like Hussein when he took power.

Why does our Middle East policy resemble the old lady who swallowed a fly?


From here

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan(CNN) -- The United States will review its financial aid package to its key anti-terrorism ally Pakistan after President Gen. Pervez Musharraf imposed a state of emergency there on Saturday, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Sunday.

Earlier Sunday Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz told reporters that the state of emergency declared in Pakistan will be imposed for "as long as it is necessary."
Aziz said no decision had yet been made as to whether parliamentary elections scheduled for January would go ahead as planned, but earlier Information Minister Tariq Azim Khan on Dubai-based GEO TV said parliamentary elections would be delayed indefinitely.
The political turmoil comes ahead of a Supreme Court ruling on whether Musharraf's recent re-election is legal.
Aziz said there could be "some timing difference" on the schedule for elections but affirmed the Pakistan leadership was still committed to democracy. He said the state of emergency had been imposed to "bring more harmony to the pillars of state" and to protect against extremism in the country.
The prime minister said that up to 500 people had been arrested so far in a round-up of judges, lawyers and political activists. Among the political activists arrested is Gen. Hameed Gull, the former head of the ISI, the Pakistani intelligence service, police officials told CNN.