Friday, December 28, 2007
Two Pakistans? Not Really
It's time to wake up America and get out of bed with the bad guys!
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There is the Pakistan of our fantasy. The burgeoning democracy in whose vanguard are judges and lawyers and human rights activists using the “rule of law” as a cudgel to bring down a military junta. In the fantasy, Bhutto, an attractive, American-educated socialist whose prominent family made common cause with Soviets and whose tenures were rife with corruption, was somehow the second coming of James Madison.
Then there is the real Pakistan: an enemy of the United States and the West.
The real Pakistan is a breeding ground of Islamic holy war where, for about half the population, the only thing more intolerable than Western democracy is the prospect of a faux democracy led by a woman - indeed, a product of feudal Pakistani privilege and secular Western breeding whose father, President Zulfiquar Ali Bhutto, had been branded as an enemy of Islam by influential Muslim clerics in the early 1970s.
The real Pakistan is a place where the intelligence services are salted with Islamic fundamentalists: jihadist sympathizers who, during the 1980s, steered hundreds of millions in U.S. aid for the anti-Soviet mujahideen to the most anti-Western Afghan fighters - warlords like Gilbuddin Hekmatyar whose Arab allies included bin Laden and Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman, the stalwarts of today’s global jihad against America.
The real Pakistan is a place where the military, ineffective and half-hearted though it is in combating Islamic terror, is the thin line between today’s boiling pot and what tomorrow is more likely to be a jihadist nuclear power than a Western-style democracy.
In that real Pakistan, Benazir Bhutto’s murder is not shocking. There, it was a matter of when, not if.
It is the new way of warfare to proclaim that our quarrel is never with the heroic, struggling people of fill-in-the-blank country. No, we, of course, fight only the regime that oppresses them and frustrates their unquestionable desire for freedom and equality.
Pakistan just won’t cooperate with this noble narrative.
Whether we get round to admitting it or not, in Pakistan, our quarrel is with the people. Their struggle, literally, is jihad. For them, freedom would mean institutionalizing the tyranny of Islamic fundamentalism. They are the same people who, only a few weeks ago, tried to kill Benazir Bhutto on what was to be her triumphant return to prominence - the symbol, however dubious, of democracy’s promise. They are the same people who managed to kill her yesterday. Today, no surfeit of Western media depicting angry lawyers railing about Musharraf - as if he were the problem - can camouflage that fact.
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Read more at the link.
¶ Friday, December 28, 2007
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There is the Pakistan of our fantasy. The burgeoning democracy in whose vanguard are judges and lawyers and human rights activists using the “rule of law” as a cudgel to bring down a military junta. In the fantasy, Bhutto, an attractive, American-educated socialist whose prominent family made common cause with Soviets and whose tenures were rife with corruption, was somehow the second coming of James Madison.
Then there is the real Pakistan: an enemy of the United States and the West.
The real Pakistan is a breeding ground of Islamic holy war where, for about half the population, the only thing more intolerable than Western democracy is the prospect of a faux democracy led by a woman - indeed, a product of feudal Pakistani privilege and secular Western breeding whose father, President Zulfiquar Ali Bhutto, had been branded as an enemy of Islam by influential Muslim clerics in the early 1970s.
The real Pakistan is a place where the intelligence services are salted with Islamic fundamentalists: jihadist sympathizers who, during the 1980s, steered hundreds of millions in U.S. aid for the anti-Soviet mujahideen to the most anti-Western Afghan fighters - warlords like Gilbuddin Hekmatyar whose Arab allies included bin Laden and Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman, the stalwarts of today’s global jihad against America.
The real Pakistan is a place where the military, ineffective and half-hearted though it is in combating Islamic terror, is the thin line between today’s boiling pot and what tomorrow is more likely to be a jihadist nuclear power than a Western-style democracy.
In that real Pakistan, Benazir Bhutto’s murder is not shocking. There, it was a matter of when, not if.
It is the new way of warfare to proclaim that our quarrel is never with the heroic, struggling people of fill-in-the-blank country. No, we, of course, fight only the regime that oppresses them and frustrates their unquestionable desire for freedom and equality.
Pakistan just won’t cooperate with this noble narrative.
Whether we get round to admitting it or not, in Pakistan, our quarrel is with the people. Their struggle, literally, is jihad. For them, freedom would mean institutionalizing the tyranny of Islamic fundamentalism. They are the same people who, only a few weeks ago, tried to kill Benazir Bhutto on what was to be her triumphant return to prominence - the symbol, however dubious, of democracy’s promise. They are the same people who managed to kill her yesterday. Today, no surfeit of Western media depicting angry lawyers railing about Musharraf - as if he were the problem - can camouflage that fact.
------------------------------
Read more at the link.
¶ Friday, December 28, 2007
Comments:
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I'm curious what you think about the conflicting reports over how Bhutto died. It seems obvious the government is lying when they say she hit her head on the sunroof and that is what killed her, but at the same time I can't quite figure out what they would gain from fabricating that story.
Welcome Dawn, I enjoy your blog and I'm glad you stopped by.
"I can't quite figure out what they would gain from fabricating that story."
I'm glad you asked that question.
In Islam a "martyr's death" is a big deal. A VERY BIG deal. If Bhutto died at the hands of an assassin then she is a martyr who will be revered forever and can be used to rally people to her cause - democracy and soial reform.
However, if the government convinces the people that she died from a concussion then her political capital and propaganda value is diminished if not eliminated.
Great question! I scoffed when I heard that too, until my brilliant wife pointed that out to me. (Thanks, Kim.)
"I can't quite figure out what they would gain from fabricating that story."
I'm glad you asked that question.
In Islam a "martyr's death" is a big deal. A VERY BIG deal. If Bhutto died at the hands of an assassin then she is a martyr who will be revered forever and can be used to rally people to her cause - democracy and soial reform.
However, if the government convinces the people that she died from a concussion then her political capital and propaganda value is diminished if not eliminated.
Great question! I scoffed when I heard that too, until my brilliant wife pointed that out to me. (Thanks, Kim.)
YOU are a little stinker! I was checking my sitemeter and saw you had stopped by. Had no idea you were even linked to my blog or who you were. I am SO glad I found you out. Your blog is very interesting and if I may link to it, I would be oh so very happy. Okay with that?
Hi ABBAGirl! I discovered your blog through Rich.
Of course you can link to mine. Thanks for the interest. Although I'm not as rabidly right-wing as when I started 3 1/2 years ago you still may get disowned by your more liberal friends! :-)
Of course you can link to mine. Thanks for the interest. Although I'm not as rabidly right-wing as when I started 3 1/2 years ago you still may get disowned by your more liberal friends! :-)
We don't live in a perfect world. Right now Pervez Musharraf is our best bet. No, we shouldn't and I hope don't go in to this with our eyes closed. Certainly lots of people within the Pakistani Government are our enemy (though the same could be said for the US government too).
I say, if not Pervez Musharraf then who? Remember this is a country with nuclear weapons. Better to have a guy in there who we mistrust than to have someone there who is openly anti-American.
Our mistake was hedging our best by encouraging free elections in the country. Free elections are the last thing we want. Most of the people in the country itself hates us. At lease we have some hold over Musharraf. Benazir Bhutto herself was very corrupt and was still hated in her country for the corruption she did while she was the head of Pakistan.
Hopefully though, this could work in our favor. Regardless of what kind of person Benazir Bhutto was, now let's make he a saintly martyr. Let's blame al-Quada and use the death to make more and more people hate al-Quada. In the end if we play this right this could have been a great thing to have happened.
I say, if not Pervez Musharraf then who? Remember this is a country with nuclear weapons. Better to have a guy in there who we mistrust than to have someone there who is openly anti-American.
Our mistake was hedging our best by encouraging free elections in the country. Free elections are the last thing we want. Most of the people in the country itself hates us. At lease we have some hold over Musharraf. Benazir Bhutto herself was very corrupt and was still hated in her country for the corruption she did while she was the head of Pakistan.
Hopefully though, this could work in our favor. Regardless of what kind of person Benazir Bhutto was, now let's make he a saintly martyr. Let's blame al-Quada and use the death to make more and more people hate al-Quada. In the end if we play this right this could have been a great thing to have happened.
# posted by 
:
Sunday, December 30, 2007 3:37:00 AM
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Sunday, December 30, 2007 3:37:00 AM
"Bhutto, an attractive, American-educated socialist whose prominent family made common cause with Soviets and whose tenures were rife with corruption..."
But now she is dead, and we can use the anger of her death to whip up anger against al Quada in Pakistan.
Actually, all and all seems like a pretty good week for us.
Part of me would like to think we were behind this but I don't think the Company could have pulled something like this off so well.
But now she is dead, and we can use the anger of her death to whip up anger against al Quada in Pakistan.
Actually, all and all seems like a pretty good week for us.
Part of me would like to think we were behind this but I don't think the Company could have pulled something like this off so well.
# posted by :
Sunday, December 30, 2007 3:47:00 AM
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Sunday, December 30, 2007 3:47:00 AM
Our best bet? He's playing both ends against the middle. He comes to America and tells us, "If not for me the mullahs will take over." Then he goes back home and tells the mullahs, "If not for me the Americans will take over."
Musharraf is interested in one thing: maintaining his power. He staged a military coup d'etat in 1999 because he and other Army leaders were angry over Sharif's attempts to find a diplomatic solution to the Kashmir crisis. He ousted the Prime Minister, dismissing all the legislatures, and declaring himself Chief Executive. He forced all judges to swear an oath of allegiance to his military government. He's suspended the constitution not once, but twice.
Last fall he declared an "emergency" when the Supreme Court was set to decide the constitutionality of his re-election. The Pakistani people consider Musharraf's second term to be the most corrupt administration in at least 20 years.
Are you sure this guy is our "best bet"? If so, it may be time to fold.
Musharraf is interested in one thing: maintaining his power. He staged a military coup d'etat in 1999 because he and other Army leaders were angry over Sharif's attempts to find a diplomatic solution to the Kashmir crisis. He ousted the Prime Minister, dismissing all the legislatures, and declaring himself Chief Executive. He forced all judges to swear an oath of allegiance to his military government. He's suspended the constitution not once, but twice.
Last fall he declared an "emergency" when the Supreme Court was set to decide the constitutionality of his re-election. The Pakistani people consider Musharraf's second term to be the most corrupt administration in at least 20 years.
Are you sure this guy is our "best bet"? If so, it may be time to fold.
"Our best bet? He's playing both ends against the middle. He comes to America and tells us, "If not for me the mullahs will take over." Then he goes back home and tells the mullahs, "If not for me the Americans will take over."
Not an ideal situation no doubt. But still much better than someone who is openly hostile to America.
I am certainly not saying we should be naive about this man but then again we should not be naive about anyone.
"Musharraf is interested in one thing: maintaining his power."
That can be said about most of the leaders of the world.
"The Pakistani people consider Musharraf's second term to be the most corrupt administration in at least 20 years."
From what I can tell most Pakistanis have a deep respect for Musharaff.
"Are you sure this guy is our "best bet"? If so, it may be time to fold."
And in this analogy "fold" means what? As long as we exist it's a game we have to play.
Not an ideal situation no doubt. But still much better than someone who is openly hostile to America.
I am certainly not saying we should be naive about this man but then again we should not be naive about anyone.
"Musharraf is interested in one thing: maintaining his power."
That can be said about most of the leaders of the world.
"The Pakistani people consider Musharraf's second term to be the most corrupt administration in at least 20 years."
From what I can tell most Pakistanis have a deep respect for Musharaff.
"Are you sure this guy is our "best bet"? If so, it may be time to fold."
And in this analogy "fold" means what? As long as we exist it's a game we have to play.
# posted by :
Sunday, December 30, 2007 12:25:00 PM
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Sunday, December 30, 2007 12:25:00 PM
"Whether we get round to admitting it or not, in Pakistan, our quarrel is with the people."
If we admit that, then our only option would be to nuke them.
I see at this juncture we only have two choices. Support Musharraf or Nuke Pakistan.
But of course when I say "support" I really don't mean total support but the type of support you give someone who isn't totally on your side. Support with your eyes open and searching for opportunities to get the upper hand.
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If we admit that, then our only option would be to nuke them.
I see at this juncture we only have two choices. Support Musharraf or Nuke Pakistan.
But of course when I say "support" I really don't mean total support but the type of support you give someone who isn't totally on your side. Support with your eyes open and searching for opportunities to get the upper hand.
# posted by :
Sunday, December 30, 2007 3:32:00 PM
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Sunday, December 30, 2007 3:32:00 PM<< Home
