The political war has heated up, with Nawaz pulling the 2nd largest party majority from the PPP coalition. Citing broken promises over the removed judges, and arguments over Musharraf’s replacement – against the backdrop of the falling rupee – Sharif says he won’t try to bring the Pakistan government down…. for now.
As I’ve often said… the world, and now even Pakistan, will be missing Musharraf. He was the fragile bond that tied… even if by their mutually shared hatred.
Vietnam era Navy wife, indy/conservative, and an official California escapee now residing as a red speck in the sea of Oregon blue.
Those two were, are crooks, acting like good democrats. Musharraf was the good guy. Maybe he didn’t move fast enough for our political season, and was hated because Bush worked with him, but he will turn out to be the best Pakistan had, is my bet.
strange to me how the Bush admin said we needed him, now the seem to wag the tail – wonder who fed them that talking pooint?
Bush admin never changed their attitudes about Musharraf, RawDawg. They did support him yielding either the Presidency, or command of the Army last fall, so he didn’t hold both positions. This was deemed wise for power distribution and appearances. The guy does us no good if he wasn’t re’elected or supported.
Frankly, I wish he’d kept the Army and dumped the Presidency. I’d always take the armed guys in uniform watching my back… :0) But I’m sure he had his reasons for his choice.
I’ve never been a believer in the PPP…and even less in the more fundamentalist Nawaz. They are too much like Obama… lots of talk and ineffective in action. But that’s what Pakistanis voted for, and we honor their selections.
Musharraf has always been the guy in the middle that acted as a coagulant between these political warring powerhouses… even in a negative sense. When you removed him, those left standing were going to wage all out political war. He neutralized them. But Zardari and Nawaz have been teaming up since the election to oust Musharraf. He promised months ago that he’d resign rather than be impeached. So all they had to do to get him out was draw up the impeachment papers in the Parliament. That it took so long is actually a statement in Musharraf’s favor. Otherwise, it would have been done within weeks after the coalition parties taking power.
As far as the US… as I said in my most recent post on Pakistan and Biden, Musharraf may not have been a saint, but he was most definitely no demon. I was blowing steam out of my ears during the canonizing of Benazir Bhutto by the western media in the days prior to her assassination. I’d take Musharraf over Bhutto, Zardari or Nawaz any day. This is a man who, when he could get away with it politically, had the stuffin’s to stand up to the militants in their midst.
I agree with Kathie that, all said and done, Musharraf may prove to be one of the US’s better and more productive allies. I expect nothing from this group. And the next POTUS… no matter who he is… will have their hands full of problems with that country.
Then again, even the Pakistanis know they have their hands full. Most have long memories of both the Bhutto/Zardari and Nawaz clans being in charge.
But then, my elevation of Musharraf over the other choices holds with my opinion for years, both here at Flopping Aces, and at my Sea2Sea blogspot…. (a blog somewhat abandoned now as I spend most of my time here…. LOL)
I read that Bush was the last hold out on his foreign relations team, supporting Musharraf. Maybe Bush has learned something about Middle East politics. When moving to some form of more open governance you need a tough leader who is not too corrupt. I think Musharraf did the best he could for the US. If we could have found bin Laden he would have let us get him. He gave us some top people with out bringing down his government. Really what more did we want? The naysayers about Musharraf don’t know what they are talking about. They are only trying to embarrass Bush and nothing more. I think we need a Musharraf in Iraq!