Friday, November 09, 2007

Musharraf is the new Shah; Pakistan is Iran in the 70s

It's official now.......even right-minded American politicians think that Musharraf is behaving like a sulking King. Well, it's not official, because it's not Bush who made the statement. But a White House hopeful did....and the world is fast-catching on. Democrat Joe Biden was to make the statement while giving his address at some college. He wants US focus to shift from Musharraf and be directed at the people of Pakistan....as they have a strong democratic tradition. Someone needs to explain to Senator Biden that Pakistan has spent a greater part of its history under a military dictator - and will continue to do so as long as his great nation allows political expediency to supersede democratic or popular will.



However, his comparison surely is interesting....and make me hopeful. Can a popular student uprising hold American diplomats hostage at the American consulate? Who will be our firebrand clerical leader? Not Qazi or Fazl for sure. We need someone not tainted by petty politics. The two Islamist leaders have switched sides and flipped loyalties too often and too fast for anyone to believe in them for too long. (Long in Pakistan is realitively short.) In my head, there's only one solution: O-S-A-M-A! He's more popular in Pakistan than Musharraf...so why not?



And the senator's argument also makes sense. The moderate element, the same one with a strong tradition of democracy, will get fed up soon and join forces with the extremist and then we will have a scripted Islamic Revolution. Only we are already a nuclear power and Israel will be wiped off like Dresden and maybe some obscure jew will write his Slaughterhouse-Five or a day in the Kibbutz or something similar. There will be no nitpicking with IAEA inspectors and total destruction expedited.

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