Musharraf's electoral quandary

[bemildred]

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Meanwhile angry protesters marched in Sindh province voicing their opposition to the Kalabagh dam which they say will leave the south of the country short of water.

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According to Shahid Bugti, a spokesman for the Bugti tribe, in five weeks since the end of December, 75 civilians, 62 security personnel and an unknown number of insurgents have been killed in the heavy fighting centred in the Marri and Bugti tribal areas. The army has given no casualty figures.

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After nearly three years of action, the army is confined to its barracks unable to patrol the mountains or apprehend anyone, while much of Waziristan is now in the hands of the Taleban. The Taleban have killed 90 tribal leaders who had sided with the government.

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Now the fundamentalist Islamic parties have seized the controversy over the Danish cartoons and are mounting daily street protests.

BBC

[varun]

1. Musharraf is a dictator

in the last "election", he got 97% of the votes...

do you think any democratically elected leader has ever won by this margin?

And our Dubya is propping him up, calling him an "ally"

[Igel]

2. Of course, the alternative is no more palatable.

Given a true Hobson's choice, I suspend judgment. There's no point condemning somebody for doing nothing, if the only 'something' available is no better. Purely hypothetical, "ideal" solutions that have no chance of success don't count.

In this case, I find the alternative to be less palatable. In other words, Musharraf comes off as the lesser of two evils, but only in the short term. He's not enough of a dictator to effectively deal with the problem. As far as dictators go--even Pakistani ones--he's a milquetoast, and ultimately he'll just be toast.