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I do not have a well thought opinion on this crisis. The thing bothering me, though, is that few Americans are truly concerned about the upheaval in Pakistan. They don’t seem to realize the dangerousness of our present era.

The trajectory of this hideous Islamic nation of Pakistan probably will never benefit from the kind of misguided ‘liberalization’ and democratization which the West is encouraging. The radical Muslims have every intention of exploiting and parasitising every freedom and every privilege to spread anti-freedom anti-democratic anti-liberal Islamic law wherever possible.

As long as Islam persists, Pakistan will remain a sewer. Yet so-called analysts discussing this catastrophe can not or will not mention the true root cause of Pakistan’s nightmare: Islam. Nor do they seem willing to discuss or mention the larger nightmare which Islam and Muslims are perpetrating on the world at large.When will we finally hold Muslims and Islam to account for the tsunami of suffering degradation and horror which they are unleashing daily, and which is being magnified by the hour???

When will we finally hold Muslims and Islam to account for the tsunami of suffering degradation and horror which they are unleashing daily, and which is being magnified by the hour???

I’ve said before that although “ideological” opponents of Islam are ready to hold it account, the “common man” (who is almost completely non-ideological in any conscious sense) isn’t. That will take economic upheaval that hits the common man’s wallets.

Anecdotally, when I press people on the “value” of Islam in the modern world (basically asking them “What does it matter if Islam continues to exist?”), their support for not bombing the ever-loving crap out of every Muslim country and letting them fester and die, is quite shallow. The transportation industry is probably the best non-military canary in the coal mine amongst non-Muslims in the West, because they know their industry is a constant target for terrorists. Ask them how they feel about Muslims and their value to the modern world. I would bet it’s quite different from the average civilian Westerner. Eventually, we will all feel that way (or enough of us that the rest won’t matter). Oxford academics vowed never to fight for England again, but that didn’t stop England from entering and helping to win WWII. So, even assuming that academics and the media will never join the fight, it doesn’t mean that Islam won’t be held accountable for its top to bottom violations of human rights.

The important thing to remember, in my opinion, is that “we” (those who wish to hold Islam accountable and execute the appropriate “sentence”) are “right”, but we’re also “early”, historically speaking.

As Hamlet said (substitute “Islam” for “sparrow”)

“There is special providence in the fall of a sparrow. If it be not now, ’tis not to come; if it be not to come, it will be now; if it be not now, yet will it come-the readiness is all. Since no man, of aught he leaves, knows what is’t to leave betimes, let be.”

Americans as a rule have a bizarre fixation with Allied leaders’ inability to turn corrupt, backward places of the globe into New England fast enough to our liking while often excusing anti-Democratic moves by our enemies (See the celebrity rush to Chavez, for example).
I’d hold off judgment on how “awful” this is for a while. It seems to me Musharreff has been doing the best he can with a backward, corrupt state, riven by islamist fever and reliant on a not-to-be trusted intelligence apparatus.
Unfortunately, it seems that there (as if often the case) the military is the most modern , rational segment of the nation.
As for Bhutto, her flight to Dubai at a critical time suggests to be she is credible as a leader only in the eyes of a befuddled Western press.

I agree with Clarice Feldman above. I should have made it clearer in my post above that leaders like Musharref don’ t have better options than that which we’re seeing now.

Once the nightmare of Islam has been unleashed, and after a society has failed to effectively repudiate the slide down into the sewer - the only option left is a desperate rear-guard action such as that imposed by Pakistan’ leadership.

The big question remains: is this all too late? Has the corruption of Islam seeped so deeply into the picture that no crackdown in the end will prove effective? Time will tell, but with virtually millions of pious Muslims being spewed forth from Pakistan’s tens of thousands of radical indoctrination factories annually (paid for primarily by Saudi Arabia), and virtually no effective anti-jihad camaigns being waged by Muslims anywhere in the wide world against the so-called ‘extremists’, Pakistan’s doom seems all but inevitable.
This crackdown is the best we can hope for under the circumstances, and our insane foreign policy will only empower the degenerate Islamic Jihadi hyenas devouring that nation.

Due to a complete lack of comprehension on the part of so-called ‘experts’ on the region, and the laziness of politicians who have not educated themselves about Islam, our policies are not helping in the least, and indeed are causing severe harm across the entire Islamic world. Just see how ‘liberalization’ and democracy have worked out in places like Turkey, Algeria, Iraq, Egypt, Afghanistan, or Pakistan. Rather than having freer or more open, modern, and tolerant societies, we witness the rise of unprecedented fascim, hatred, and Islamic supremacism across the board. Perhaps it’ a time we toss out the stale old formulas, and crush the Islamic impulse before it’s too late for the rest of the world!

Once again–with necessary edits:
Americans as a rule have a bizarre fixation with Allied leaders’ inability to turn corrupt, backward places of the globe into New England fast enough to our liking while often excusing anti-Democratic moves by our enemies (See the celebrity rush to Chavez, for example).
I’d hold off judgment on how “awful” this is for a while. It seems to me Musharraf has been doing the best he can with a backward, corrupt state, riven by islamist fever and reliant on a not-to-be trusted intelligence apparatus.
Unfortunately, it seems that there (as is often the case) the military is the most modern , rational segment of the nation.
As for Bhutto, her flight to Dubai at a critical time suggests to me she is credible as a leader only in the eyes of a befuddled Western press.

Gen Musharraf is in a horrible Catch-22. Like a lot of countries in that region, the military in Pakistan has traditionally been a counter-force against the “darker forces” that run through society. That was the coup that brought him in, and that is this second coup that is keeping him there.
Democracy is not a cure-all, especially in societies that didn’t experience the Enlightenment. Given the risk of a Taliban state with nuclear weapons, Musharraf is doing what he thinks needs done, not just for the Pakistanis, but for the world. I’ve never supported a military coup, but I find it hard to argue with him now.

An ex-pat friend in Pakistan e-mails:

“I think the way the US pushed Benazir on Mush was the last straw for him. First of all, EVERYONE here knows she stole over a billion dollars from the country. Secondly, she is woefully out of touch with the Pakistan of today and this is evident in her speeches and statements. And with all the problems going on here, the last thing they needed was her coming here and adding fuel to the fire.

You can’t fight these terrorists and at the same time worry about making nice with every Tom, Dick, and Sally, which is what the US wanted Mush to do, and I think he just said enough is enough.”

Musharaff is proving to be his own worse enemy. Chief Justice Chaudry

may not be the most helpful of sorts; but he’s not the one who killed 150 people last month. The real threat are in the Madrassas and Mosques like the Haqquania, and

Karachi’s own Lal Masjid; from whence the footsoldiers of the Jamaati, Lashkar and Harakat movements arise. They are assisted by a significant faction in the Army, the ISI and the Frontier Constabulary. Historically, the turnover on Pakistani’ men on horseback’; (Ayub Khan, Yahya Kan,

Zia,) has been about 8 years at the

top end one way or another.