Tyrant Musharraf

By Michael J.W. Stickings

From the NYT:

The government of Gen. Pervez Musharraf, making no concessions a day after seizing emergency powers, rounded up leading opposition figures and said Sunday that parliamentary elections could be delayed for as long as a year.

Security forces were reported to have rounded up about 500 opposition party figures, lawyers and human rights advocates Sunday, and about a dozen privately television news stations remained off the air. International broadcasters, including the BBC and CNN, were also cut.

Yes, this is America's ally -- and Bush's friend. "I admire your courage and leadership," Bush said at a joint news conference with Musharraf last year. And now?

Of course, Bush has also been duped by Putin and remains close friends with other anti-democratic rulers around the world, notably the Saudi royals. Whatever the content of his rhetoric, and much of it has been high-falutin', however hollow, Bush often seems to be on the wrong side of the struggle for freedom and democracy.

**********

Peter Bergen at TNR:

In the past few years, Musharraf has convinced the Bush administration that he is the only person who can prevent radical Islamists from taking over his country and getting their hands on Pakistan's nuclear weapons. But this is self-serving fiction. A September poll found that Pakistan's coalition of militant Islamist parties, known as the MMA, would receive only 3.5 percent of the vote in a contested election. (Last week, Musharraf coasted to reelection, as opposition parties boycotted the vote.) Having been duped by the myth of Musharraf's indispensability, Bush officials are now overly reluctant to push the Pakistani leader too hard on confronting Al Qaeda -- for fear he will be seen as an American stooge, eventually toppled, and replaced by someone far worse.

"At nearly every turn, [Bush] has made the wrong strategic choices in battling Al Qaeda," writes Bergen. He has also made the wrong choices throughout the war on terror generally, and that includes supporting Musharraf, whose efforts have focused on consolidating his own power, not rooting out terrorism.