By M K Bhadrakumar
The George W Bush administration lost no time reiterating its support of President Pervez Musharraf following the February 18 parliamentary elections. There is bipartisan consensus in Washington that in the given circumstances, the United States has very little leeway other than depending on Musharraf and the Pakistani military.
The leading Republican contender in the US presidential race, Senator John McCain, bluntly rejected the calls for Musharraf's resignation, even calling the Pakistani leader "a legitimately elected president". Top Democrats - Senator Joseph Biden, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Senator John Kerry - as well as the influential Republican figure Senator "Chuck" Hagel, who were in Pakistan as election "observers", also implicitly endorsed Washington's reiteration of Musharraf being a key US ally.
Indeed, there seems to be a bipartisan understanding in Washington that the US finds itself on slippery turf in Pakistan. Any perspective on the US predicament in Pakistan solely in terms of Washington's commitment to the forces of democracy and change will be too simplistic. There are several factors at work that seriously limit the US options in Pakistan.
Fractured election verdict
First, a close assessment of the election results in Pakistan will show that what is available from the February 18 polls is a fractured verdict by the Pakistani ...
The George W Bush administration lost no time reiterating its support of President Pervez Musharraf following the February 18 parliamentary elections. There is bipartisan consensus in Washington that in the given circumstances, the United States has very little leeway other than depending on Musharraf and the Pakistani military.
The leading Republican contender in the US presidential race, Senator John McCain, bluntly rejected the calls for Musharraf's resignation, even calling the Pakistani leader "a legitimately elected president". Top Democrats - Senator Joseph Biden, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Senator John Kerry - as well as the influential Republican figure Senator "Chuck" Hagel, who were in Pakistan as election "observers", also implicitly endorsed Washington's reiteration of Musharraf being a key US ally.
Indeed, there seems to be a bipartisan understanding in Washington that the US finds itself on slippery turf in Pakistan. Any perspective on the US predicament in Pakistan solely in terms of Washington's commitment to the forces of democracy and change will be too simplistic. There are several factors at work that seriously limit the US options in Pakistan.
Fractured election verdict
First, a close assessment of the election results in Pakistan will show that what is available from the February 18 polls is a fractured verdict by the Pakistani ...
No comments:
Post a Comment