Another Lesson Not Learned

Pervez Musharraf, president of Pakistan, is a dictator. As Wikipedia says: "He came to power in 1999 by effecting a military coup d'état and has suspended the constitution of Pakistan twice." He may have removed his uniform, but he's still calling the shots, and last I checked he wasn't elected in any fair and open sort of way.

Nonetheless, the US has decided to call him an ally. Reluctantly, perhaps, but since he serves our short-term interests, he's called an ally just the same. Where have I seen this before? Oh yeah, Iraq. Surely, things will work out better this time, though.

Or not.

The assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto has pitched Pakistan into a political freefall and raised fears that increasingly bitter divisions in the society are turning the country into another Iraq.

Shocked citizens blame the deepening turmoil on President Pervez Musharraf and his U.S.-backed crackdown on Islamic extremists. Overwhelmingly poor and more concerned with survival than anti-Western terrorism, most crave stability above all, and many believe things will only get better if Musharraf resigns.

"The government of Musharraf has created an Afghanistan and Iraq-like situation in our country," said Zaheer Ahmad, 47, who works at a private clinic in Multan. "I don't know who killed Benazir Bhutto. But I do know that it is the result of Musharraf's wrong and bad policies." [emphasis added]

So if Pakistan dissolves into chaos and Musharraf is "forced" to resume his military dictatorship and suspend the constitution again, will the US once again become the object of scorn for a new generation of extremists?

The real question is whether our government will ever stop backing dictators. It's deplorable behavior for a country that claims its mission is to "spread democracy."