Everyone remembers the "We'll be greeted as liberators" reassurances of Dick, who told us "Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction."
Well, Dick has done it again. He visited Pakistan a couple of weeks ago.
Musharraf is Pakistan's head of state and his has never been a particularly secure position. Musharraf isn't the most democratic of leaders, and gets in trouble with the religious extremists who don't like his embrace of the West or his willingness to "cooperate" with the United States. He has to walk a tightrope between appeasing those who would modernize Pakistan and those who would gladly turn into a state that the Taliban could bless. To be seen as an American puppet could mean the end of his career and could tip Pakistan towards theocracy.
Into this violatile mix walks Dick. With all the subtly of a bull wandering into a china shop from a marijuana patch, Dick demands that Musharraf cooperate more with the US.
The fallout?
"... the political cost to Gen Musharraf of being seen as a puppet of the administration of President George W. Bush is becoming unsustainable. ... “It’s a whirlpool right now,” says Taffazul Rizvi, a US-trained Pakistani lawyer. “It’s an emerging situation, which can take down anyone, including Musharraf.” … Diplomats in Islamabad worry it may be too late for ... political fixes. Religious radicalism is spreading so rapidly that there is little time left to save Pakistan’s moderate political parties and institutions such as the Supreme Court that are central to the functioning of any future democracy."
Dick has become Midas's doppleganger - everything he touches turns to destruction.
R World (Ron Davison muses aloud)
Right. Vice President and Chief Instigator. If Cheney can't get his Iran war started due to political pressure against it in the U.S., he can always go to Pakistan and create an adversary there. If he does the job right, Musharraf will be replaced by radicals with atomic weapons.
ReplyDeleteHe won't have to lie about weapons of mass destruction when he starts talking about bombing Pakistan's nuclear facilities. He will have created the fact.
What's the matter, there's no phones in Pakistan? Seems to me our diplomacy should be a bit quieter there.
It's what you all get for having expensive simpletons run your country.
ReplyDeleteLH,
ReplyDeleteYou bourght up the one thing I forgot to mention - imagine the Taliban with atomic weapons and you can imagine Pakistan handed over to the reigious fundamentalists.
Chrlane,
Our simpletons aren't that expensive. We would gladly sell them to you Canadians for a very low price. As the car dealer said, "What would I have to do to get you to take this administration home with you today?