Stop Placating Pakistan

The Bush administration has looked the other way as its ally in the war on terror veers from democracy.

SUPPOSE THAT a supreme court justice in an unstable but pro-American country becomes unwilling to take his cues from the authoritarian government. He orders its intelligence services to answer charges that they are holding 100 citizens who have disappeared. He is widely believed to oppose a presidential scheme to get around a constitutional ban on running for reelection. The government suspends the justice and places him under house arrest. Street protests erupt, and government riot police using tear gas quell demonstrators, haul away opposition leaders and smash their way into a TV station that covers the controversy.

How does the U.S. government react? With few exceptions, in the bad old days of the Cold War, the United States turned a blind eye to such thuggery by friendly strongmen in Third World countries so long as they remained reliably anti-communist.

That was then. President Bush now argues that radical Islam showed that where freedom and opportunity were squelched — as in much of the Middle East — extremism would flourish. “We will encourage reform in other governments by making clear that success in our relations will require the decent treatment of their own people,” Bush declared in his second inaugural address. “America’s belief in human dignity will guide our policies, yet rights must be more than the grudging concessions of dictators; they are secured by free dissent and the participation of the governed.”

Yet Bush is failing to live up to his own standard, acting instead very much under Cold War rules. The above example is from Pakistan last week. President Pervez Musharraf, who seized power in a coup more than seven years ago, continues to squelch his democratic domestic opposition and appears determined to engineer his reelection as president while retaining his post as army chief, in violation of the constitution. Yet so long as he mouths anti-terrorism bromides, Washington seems loath to mention his anti-democratic behavior — even as it shells out billions in aid to Pakistan each year. This flawed notion that there is no alternative to the friendly dictator, even when he is behaving like, well, a dictator, is the same logic that led the U.S. to cozy up to such anti-communist leaders as Anastasio Somoza of Nicaragua and the shah of Iran .

The Bush administration’s unwillingness to distance itself from Musharraf, or to at least express disapproval of his behavior, is shortsighted in the extreme. To sacrifice U.S. values to fight terrorism is to lose the broader struggle.

Source: LA Times

an Image says a 1000 word – CJP & COAS

It says it all. CJP Iftikhar Chaudhary in Army House confronting COAS Parvez Musharraf.

Click Image to view full size Image for better screen viewing – kindly spread the truth and circulate it to as many people as you can.

  

Yet, its only you
and yet its only your allocution,

yet its only your rare breed of words,
yet only your tempting sentences, only your lips are open yet,
yet you yourself are the only evidence,

yet you are the lord of the lords
yet you are the ruler

yet you are the only source of information
yet its only you have all the vocabulary

yet its only you have the decisions,
yet its only you are the decider,

yet you are the one who holds yesterday & today,
yet only you have all the means,
yet only you are advertising yourself

Its nothing!

your anger will show up,
it’ll speak out of your body & soul,

yet you are the only honoured; but in only your own eyes
yet only you sing your own songs in the highest nodes,

yet you have the authority  over time & space
its only you who have uttered yet
you have uttered whatever you wanted to

whatever you felt like you said
whatever you liked the most – you have said

but

when its all done
all spoken out

just remember

that I have not said anything yet.

Pakistan tests Hatf-VII Babar Cruise Missile

Early Morning today, Pakistan has successfully test fired its radar evading nuclear ready Hatf-VII Babar Cruise Missile ranging upto 700 KM (430 miles). It can carry conventional weapons as well as nuclear ones.

Babar was previously tested in 2005. General Ehsan ul Haq alongwith scientists and senior army personnels were available the site of test fire.

“The test is part of Pakistan’s ongoing efforts at consolidating its strategic capability and strengthening national security,” the ISPR (Inter Services Public Relations) directorate said in a statement.

“Babur was tested successfully with new technical parameters and enhanced edge,” said Maj. Gen. Waheed Arshad, the top army spokesman.

Neither Arshad nor the military statement specified site of the missile launch.

President General Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz congratulated the scientists and engineers for “this very important success” of the test, the military statement said.

India and Pakistan have an agreement under which each country informs that other ahead of its missile tests.

But Pakistan did not inform India of the test Thursday because the accord does not include providing prior information on cruise missile tests, a military official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment to media.

In February, Pakistan successfully test-fired a new version of its long-range nuclear-capable missile, Hatf VI (Shaheen II), which has a range of 2,000 kilometers (1,245 miles).