A Stitch in Haste

Less than 48 hours after I reminded people in the latest Kip Does McLaughlin how foolhardy it is to over-rely on Pakistani leader Pervez Musharraf, he has to go and prove it:

The Pakistani leader, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, declared a state of emergency tonight, suspending the country's constitution, blacking out all independent television news reports and filling the streets of the capital with hundreds of police and soldiers.
...
Soon after independent television stations went blank in the capital at just after 5 p.m., dozens of police forces surrounded the Supreme Court building, with justices still inside, as well as the justice's [sic] homes. The justices were ordered to sign a "provisional constitutional order" enabling the emergency decree, according to Western diplomats, with the government leaving implicit that any failing to do so would be dismissed.

At least 6 of the court's 11 justices gathered in the court and rejected the order, according to an aide to Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry.

Remind again how judicial independence and "activist judges" are a threat to liberty and democracy?

Terrorist is as terrorist does. Wearing a uniform and leading a gang of thugs wearing uniforms does not constitute "legitimacy" and certainly not "democratic legitimacy."

And remember — this is the guy we like, this is the guy we support ("we" meaning of course our "defenders of liberty" in Washington). Notwithstanding, of course, the pesky fact that Osama bin Laden has been given refuge in his country, with impunity, for six years now.

So, to review:

• Anti-democratic megalomaniac without weapons of mass destruction = an unnecessary, unjust war with almost 4,000 Americans dead.



• Anti-democratic megalomaniac with weapons of mass destruction = "trusted ally."

Plus ça change.

So first General Musharraf dissolved the Pakistan Supreme Court...

...because they were al Qaeda terrorists...

...or something.

Now Musharraf has placed opposition leader Benazir Bhutto under house arrest, just before she planned to lead a protest rally...

...because Bhutto is an al Qaeda terrorist...

...or something.

The only thing more dangerous than a politician is a politician wearing a military uniform. The only thing more dangerous than a politician wearing a military uniform is a politician wearing a military uniform whom the United States embraces as a "trusted ally."

Madness. Sheer madness.

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Let the record reflect that Bhutto is not exactly flying with angels wings. But that is hardly the point. She's not the one going around arresting protesters and dissolving courts. Nor do we have any reason to think she would.