Subscribe RSS 2.0
This Sunday, after Pakastani President Pervez Musharraf “imposed emergency rule and suspended the constitution in a bid to save his job,” an adviser to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice “saw a silver lining in the rapid turn of events”
“Thank heavens for small favors,” the official said. Compared to Pakistan, “Iraq looks pretty good.”
In reality, Musharraf’s “crackdown on the political opposition, the media and the courts” is no ’small favor,’ and the situation in Iraq is a mess. Manan Ahmed of Global Affairs blog suggests that the ’small favor’ of Pakistani chaos was partly the result of President Bush’s failed foreign policy.
Pakistan needed our help a year ago. It needed a genuine push for democratic processes back in March. We left unchecked, and unhindered, a megalomaniac “enlightened moderator”. We keep insisting on our own interests ahead of the interests of the people of Pakistan. We remain steadfast in our belief that those people are not as developed nor as functional as we would like them to be. Pakistan needs a strong dictator. The fallacy … the gross oversight … has always been that he was never in control.
Meanwhile, in Iraq, while violence may have slightly decreased, the Iraqi government has made no progress towards national political reconciliation, Iraq’s reconstruction efforts have stalled, and “the number of Iraqis killed in insurgent and sectarian attacks rose in October.” As ThinkProgress pointed out, “this recent reduction in violence should be taken with a grain of salt, as it coincides with increased sectarian cleansing and a massive refugee displacement.”
According to a recent Pew Research Center for the People & the Press survey, 51 percent of Americans believe that the war in Iraq is going “not too well” or “not at all well.” Unfortunately, the Bush administration is more concerned with perceptions, than dealing with its significant, repeated, and avoidable foreign policy blunders.
Just another military coup and dictatorship that has been financed, supported and backed by the United states of America. The US hates democracy!