Benazir Bhutto (RWC)
In Pakistan General Pervez Musharraf apparently will quit his army post so he can remain as president of the country.
He is presently also the head of the army and he has been wearing his soldier’s uniform over the eight years since he seized power in a coup. He has been in the army all his adult life and the Pakistani army has incredible power and status in that country.
Musharraf is facing parliamentary elections and threats from his own Supreme Court that could force him from office.
Musharraf has been in lengthy talks with Benazir Bhutto, the former prime minister who heads the center-left Pakistan People’s Party. Bhutto is saying that Musharraf plans to quit the army in exchange for her support.
Like many politicians in Pakistan, the good looking, Harvard educated Mrs. Bhutto is a bit of a crook –more than a bit, actually. She and her husband were indefatigable in accumulating wealth through bribes and corrupt deals. She has allegedly sealed an agreement with Musharraf to drop all corruption charges against her so she can return from exile.
She would join forces with Musharraf so he could stay in office for another five years.
Mrs. Bhutto has been in exile for years. When I was in Pakistan right after 9/11, she was living in luxury in Dubai and the UK. She has many powerful friends in Washington among liberal policy makers.
Bhutto is Pakistan and Democracy's best hope. I do not think so.
I recently spoke with a guy who was a US government employee in Pakistan at the time Bhutto was in office. He said that it wasn't that Bhutto's husband asked for money in return for anything, it was that he asked for to much. As he put it "enough was enough, it was just too much"
Mushariff will be either in Jail or assassinated as soon as he relinquishes control of the military.
Bhutto will be unable to control the military and she will be a paper tiger regarding the radicals and other ratbags. If you think Mushariff was bad, negotiating with the ratbags, Bhutto, the democrat, will be infinitely worse. The problem will be brushed under the rug and the MSM will support the move.
Posted by: davod | September 01, 2007 at 04:40 AM
Kind of in agreement with Davod, it just seems to me all we are really seeing here is the foundation being established for the next coup attempt, which may very well leave in power a regime with no pretenses toward the West.
It is worth recalling that there are schools of radical Islamic thought wherein a Sharia-based government is considered illegitimate if **voted** in.
Posted by: Yankee Doodle | September 06, 2007 at 06:53 AM