11/16/07

Oh sure, nowadays in the American media it’s all “Iraq this” or “Iran that.”

True, there are all kinds of things going on in those countries that are probably going to kill us all.

However, there is some other troubling news coming out of the Islamic world that we need to keep track of.

Last week Pervez Musharraf, president of Pakistan and chief of the Pakistani Army, declared a state of emergency in his country. Musharraf then proceeded to place virtually all of his political opposition under house arrest, including Benazir Bhutto, the most powerful (and newly returned from exile) opposition leader in Pakistan.

The majority of the nation’s judges-including the chief justice-as well as the leaders of Pakistan’s most prominent human rights organization have also been locked up. Musharraf also outlawed any march, demonstration, protest or public expression of free speech against the state.

Now, here are a few things to remember. First, Musharraf is one of the United States’ closest Muslim allies in the War on Terror. He has pledged the support of the Pakistani Army in cooperating with the U.S., NATO and Afghani forces in hunting down the remaining Taliban forces on the Afghanistan/Pakistan border.

Second, General Musharraf took control of his country in a military coup in 1999. The army remains the only real political party in the country.

That said, there are large numbers of anti-West Islamic fundamentalists in Pakistan with links to the Taliban and probably al-Qaeda.

These folks would love nothing more than to create in Pakistan what the Taliban had in Afghanistan.

Finally, Musharraf has repeatedly promised to hold free and open elections in his country and he has consistently reneged on those promises.

Free elections scheduled for October have been pushed back to Jan. 8.

How has the United States responded to one of its closest allies giving the democratic process the old heave-ho?

Other than statements of “concern” the U.S. government has done nothing. Other European and world leaders have hardly done much more.

The U.S. and friends need to get in the game in Pakistan, and they need to do it right now. A secular dictatorship is bad enough, but if Musharraf’s antics plunge Pakistan into civil war, whom do you think is going to pick up the pieces?

My money is on the extremists. Pakistan might just be one misfired Kalashnikov away from a caliphate.

While that statement probably applies to just about every other Muslim state allied with the U.S., a new, aggressively anti-American regime in Pakistan would make the old Taliban reign look as toothless as student senate.

Why?

Because Pakistan has the bomb, and seeing how its western neighbor is the former global epicenter of al-Qaeda, a new anti-American regime might just know somebody wanting to take a backpack on a one-way trip to Times Square.

There’s already evidence that an increasingly pro-Taliban Pakistani Army and intelligence service are becoming unhappy with their boss’ cozy friendship with the West.

Unilateral action isn’t the only way to go. By now, the United States should have realized that its records at both propping up friendly dictators and rigging elections aren’t that great.

Instead, the United States needs to pull together with its European allies as well as the major powers of Asia. Russia, China, and you damn well better believe India don’t want an extremist and nuclear Pakistan any more than we do.

The U.S. needs to get the biggest multi-lateral group together that it can to sit down with our wayward friend Musharraf, and let him know that a fair and ordered democratic process needs to happen in Pakistan.

Also, the U.S. and NATO need to step up support and funding for military and intelligence operations in Afghanistan and do everything possible-covert, overt or otherwise-to eliminate what’s left of the Taliban.

If they absolutely must do it on the wrong side of the Pakistani border, then for heaven’s sake they better do it quietly.

Sure, the United States has already got its hands full with problems in Iraq and Iran, but the situation in Pakistan has got to be nipped in the bud before it blooms into civil war, political chaos or another extremist regime.