(no subject)

[winterbadger]

Musharraf speaks out

Pervez Musharraf is not willing to suffer fools gladly (though he's very polite). In this story, and the link to an audio/video interview with him, he makes a very strong case that Pakistan is not to blame for the problems in the region, as many would have it, but in fact the West is responsible and needs to help Pakistan, without whom the West cannot win its war with militant conservative Islam. I am impressed by him in a way I am not by most world leaders I hear. Not enough, sadly, to believe everything he says, but enough to recognize that he has a perspective that needs to get more attention and respect than I think it sometimes does in the West. He is a smart, capable, insightful man (he wouldn't have lived to be where he is now if he weren't); of course he is going to speak and work in his own intersts and in those of Pakistan ahead of those of the West, but I think he is a better ally than all of us realise, and a man walking a tightrope while juggling lit torches.

Comments

[sun-in-splendor.livejournal.com]

"and a man walking a tightrope while juggling lit torches."
On a gasoline soaked rope.

[nickys.livejournal.com]

Well, the US (and Europe by default)'s entire foreign policy for the last several decades seems to have consisted of "Who is the bogeyman this week?" and "The enemy of my enemy must be my friend".

When Russia was the bogeyman the US funded the Taliban, despite knowing that they were basically fundamentalists with no respect for women's rights or human rights in general.
When Iran under the mullahs was the bogeyman they funded Iraq, knowing perfectly well about the attacks on the Kurds etc...


Pretty much any kind of analysis based on listening the point of view of the countries involved would be a huge improvement over the current apparently random allocation of Good or Bad status.