The Three-Legged Lap Dog Fires Back
What does an Asian leader, bankrolled primarily by the United States, do when faced with a collapsing country, a renegade judiciary and a charismatic female political opponent? It all depends on who is living in the White House.
Today's resident of the White House is George W. Bush. The president has squandered American budget surpluses, is in the process of losing an un-losable war in Afghanistan, doomed the military to a multi-generational quagmire in Iran and engineered the loss of our nation's position as the world's unquestioned leader in moral, military and economic matters.
The Bush administration "warned" Gen. Pervez Musharraf, the American lap dog leader in Islamabad, to heed the bad omens and, at the very least, work out a power sharing arrangement with the political opposition. Musharraf jumped off the lap lifted his leg to splash a strong stream of defiance on the block walls of the White House. His message is almost North Korean in its clarity: 'Who cares what you think, George Bush?'
A generation ago, on the far side of Asia, an American lap dog leader faced a collapsing country, a renegade judiciary and a charismatic female opponent. Ferdinand Marcos asked White House emissary Paul Laxalt what he should do. ''I think you should cut and cut cleanly," Senator Laxalt said. "I think the time has come.'' Marcos asked if the advice had been authorized by President Ronald Reagan. Yes it had, Laxalt said. Marcos and his family fled Malacanang Palace in the dark of night under covering fire of half a dozen .30 caliber machine guns.
What's the difference?
Marcos was afraid of Ronald Reagan. Musharraf doesn't fear George Bush.
Ronald Reagan relied on actor's skills, sternly facing down enemies without ever having to swing the Rooseveltian big stick. He stood in Berlin wall and ordered the second most powerful man in the world to "tear down this wall." He bristled not with policies but with bluster.
It has been clear for many months that Pakistan was heading toward martial law and the Bush administration continued to throw miniature Band-Aids at gushing wounds.
The U.S. engineered deal for the return of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto that would provide Musharraf a middle ground to save face and avoid lynching.
The deal ignores reality. "We are a country at war, we have always been at war, for the moment it is all we know," a Pakistani military intelligence official told me from Asia last week. "We have no experience with compromise. It will be some time before we can make a decision that doesn't start with the firing of a weapon."
Bhutto wasn't back in country for an hour before someone -- clearly with official backing -- switched off the street lights and ignited a lethal bomb that missed her but made it clear what Musharraf really thinks about power sharing.
For all his Texas bluster, George Bush remains a spoiled child of Greenwich, Connecticut, who plays a tough guy on television and not very convincingly.
Reagan played an oddly believable tough guy. The Berlin wall came down; Marcos moved to Hawaii and even the Nicaraguan pest Daniel Ortega allowed himself to get unelected.
Bush promised to "get" Bin Laden. He promised to transform Afghanistan. He insisted that Musharraf behave.
Musharraf is, like Marcos, a thug. Thugs do not respond to suggestions, they don't listen to entreaties. Thugs listen to threats. Laxalt didn't have to tell Marcos the price of noncompliance would bring because Marcos was afraid of Reagan.
Musharraf isn't afraid. When the U.S. decided to attack Afghanistan to provide political cover for the still smoldering hole that was once the World Trade Center, Musharraf was fully compliant. The Bush administration was so hell bent on playing the tough guy that they never heard nor pondered the price of Pakistani assistance.
In the crucial days after 9/11 Musharraf told the Bush White House that he would support the U.S. The grateful White House failed to listen to the rest of the sentence: Pakistani support came at a personal political price for the general. The move will create a political backlash within Pakistan that will eventually have to be faced.
In another example of the "What Me Worry" foreign policy program, the White House listened to only what it wanted to hear.
It's time for the U.S. to realize that even a lap dog can stand on three legs.
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"We are a country at war, we have always been at war, for the moment it is all we know,"
And now we have chickenhawks who are saying we should go into Pakistan against a seasoned army with years of combat experience, plus the Taliban and Al Qaeda dug into mountains that gave the russians fits for years.
If there is one general in Washington who says that we can win this in "Shock and Awe" fashion in a matter of weeks they should be relieved of command immediately. I guess they want a "tactical nuclear strike" just as they have planned for Iran. Madness!
Dear Mr. Mulvaney, over all pretty perceptive article. However, one of your premises is incorrect. Mrs. Bhutto is not the charismatic leader that you make her out to be, in fact, it is wildly believed that if fair and open elections were held she will get trounced.
She has also been providing lap dances for gullible state dept officials and other foreign policy bigwigs. A way to describe the level of her actual support will be to compare her with Iraqi National Congress Leadership. She is selling the same Kool-Aid to us as those guys were.
Time to let Pakistanis choose their own leadership, while we mind our own house.
Here's a theory. What if the Bush Admin has told Musharraf that an attack on Iran is immanent and Musharraf decided to impose martial law in order to contain the resulting riots? I think Bush wants to bomb before any senate bill can be passed taking the controls out of his hands. Look forward to some shock and awe coming our way.
If we manage to survive the Bush regime (not entirely a done deal), 20 years from now there's going to be some VERY funny lampoons of this maladroit administration's misadventures. In the same way we can now laugh at Nixon - and Mel Brookes turned Hitler into a joke.
It's like Bush has some kind of perverse, anti-Midas touch. Everything he touches turns to crap.
Although the art of the international clusterf**k has long been a Presidential specialty (think Korea, Bay of Pigs, Vietnam, Cambodia, Nicaragua, etc.), Mr. Bush seems to have elevated it into a new stratosphere of hyperachievement.
Most Presidents have been content with one international clusterf**k at a time. Mr. Bush, against all odds and to the amazement of all who paid attention, began unleashing a veritable blizzard of international clusterf**ks almost immediately after stealing office.
Why should we be surprised that once again Mr. Bush has blundered into yet another international clusterf**k in Pakistan? It's his hallmark, his trademark. The word "clusterf**k" should figure prominently in the title of his someday autobiography, just to distinguish it from other Presidents' rewrites of their own pathetic histories, if nothing else.
The former multiple-clusterf**k champion, the late Saint Ronny, must be spinning in his grave with envy. Even he could manage only two or three at a time. Even Bush Père weeps at how far his boy has out-clusterf**ked the old man.
So, when do WE start the coup thing from the population point of view?
Obviously, the leadership of the Democratic party have decided to "bed down" with the Bush.
Oooooooo - those fleas - it's time to start biting and hopping and skipping, and biting.......
OK, fleas - are you with me?
*nibble*nibble
Macho idiot, elected to white house = Country going to hell in a hand basket, while apathetic, spineless dems (Feinstein, etc.) sit by and do nothing. What can we do but watch the race to the bottom.
Well yet again Bushie you've done a heck of a job. Pounding your chest and threatening Iran to not develop nuclear weapons in, oh say, two or three years while a locked and loaded nuclear buddy country of ours moves to the verge of implosion. Will you please stop: 1) seeing sensitive, gentle souls when you gaze into the eyes of the Putin's and Musharraf's of the world and, 2) stop pounding your empty chest about Iran. You can't even finish the job you started in Iraq, if you did in fact intend on winning, which is a story for another day. By the way, speaking of buddy country's, when do you intend on placing sanctions on Saudi Arabia, since that's where the bulk of Al Quaeda's finances emanate? I mean, money and weapons and recruits, that's what it's all about, correct? The Saudis provide the money, Iran supplies the weapons (so you say), and we supply the recruits with your breathtaking ignorance of the Middle East. Of course, breathtaking ignorance is pretty much your life strategy, as we've sadly learned over the last seven years.
And just how do you think Bin Laden is feeling these days? ALL his dreams and wishes are coming true thanks to george the inept and his 24%ers.
One dog can smell another dog.
A dog knows the difference between a President who can say to a Russian leader, "Tear Down This Wall!" ...
... and a dog who is told by another Russian leader that he shouldn't be building an enormous wall between his nation and the nation upon whom he depends to (whee...) pick his avocadoes.
Both of these Russian leaders, and a great many other men and women throughout this world (and throughout America) recognize a dangerous man when they see one. But this is what our own human nature has brought us: "the love of money really IS the root of all evil."
"Ike was right."
I'm glad that I'm not the only one who is concerned about the situation in Pakistan. Consider three points:
1. The government of Pakistan is extremely unstable. Musharraf is a military general who took the presidency by force and is now hated by the people of Pakistan for his alliance with the US among other reasons.
2. Pakistan has nuclear weapons.
3. Bin Laden, the person who actually attacked us, is rebuilding his army on the border of Pakistan.
And our government is touting Iran as our next great threat over some (albeit horrible) things their leader has said. If our government wants a fight, its right there on the border of Pakistan. What are we doing?
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