Whereas you are full of crap . . .

I started out somewhat sympathetic towards Musharraf. He took power in 1999 in a bloodless coup, promising to be the only politician who wasn't on the take, after the sitting Prime Minister tried to force him out of the country. From September 2001 onwards, he was trying to run a country with two guns placed against either side of his head. I didn't really see it then - that Pakistan's army was still, as it has been before, a power junkie whose dealers sat either in Washington or in the country's pulpits. The junkie often bought from both at the same time. The junkie would never be strong enough to kick the habit on its own - Musharraf, and his banker friend Aziz never intended to stand up to the forces of illiteracy and backwardness when and where it counted, but contented themselves with bombing their own population at Uncle Sam's behest.

In the Supreme Court, however, the people of Pakistan found a glimmer of hope - Chief Justice Iftikar Chaudhry had the strength to stand on principle, and on the rule of law against the military. So when today, the Supreme Court declared that Musharraf did not have the constitutional right to re-elect himself from legislatures whose term was expired, the response was sadly predictable, especially to those who saw the truckloads of troops entering Islamabad earlier this week. The boldness of the nonsensical, ludicrously vindictive "Proclamation" of a "Provisional Constitutional Order" (translation: what Musharraf says, goes!) today, is also, sadly, not out of keeping.

"Whereas some members of the judiciary are working at cross purposes with the executive and
legislature in the fight against terrorism and extremism, thereby weakening the government and the nation's resolve and diluting the efficacy of its actions to control this menace"

It wasn't the Judiciary that made war on Pakistan. It wasn't the Judiciary that spent months appeasing the clerics of the Lal Masjid. It wasn't the Judiciary that neglected the country's public education system, letting government schools be abandoned as the defense budget grew to 25% of total federal spending. It wasn't the Judiciary that ran an army whose soldiers and field officers surrender en masse when confronted by Muslim insurgents, knowing that their masters are just not worth fighting for.

The failure has been entirely Musharraf's. This latest treason is just the icing on the already bloodied cake.

I ended my last post about Pakistan by saying,

"Now that Musharraf has put down this idiotic little rebellion, the country must now confront the next greatest threat to the rule of law:

Musharraf himself."

Whatever evil end this man meets he has brought it squarely upon himself.