Tuesday, November 06, 2007

The Sin of Personal Diplomacy

The ancient tradition of "the King is the State" is alive in the limited mind of George Bush. Whether he is peering into the soul of nascent Russian dictator Vladimir Putin or invading an entire nation, killing tens of thousands of innocents, because he hates Saddam Hussein, Bush's view of entire countries is limited to his personal opinion of those country's leaders. This horrendous flaw is on display in the tragedy that is Pakistan.

To Bush, Pakistan is not a nation of 160 million people. Bush cannot see a nation where the schools are starved for funding because the military fears that educated people will long for freedom. He does not realize that radicalizing madrasahs have mushrooms because the dictatorship fears doctors and lawyers more than it fears Islamic fundamentalists. Bush does not see a nation driven into chaos by the power lust of a single individual; a chaos made infinitely more dangerous by dozens of nuclear weapons up for grabs. No, when Bush sees Pakistan all he can see is Pervez Musharraf and he likes the guy.
I will be seeing President Musharraf, who I like ...he's a good fellow... ~ George Bush, 2006
The United States response to the chaos in Pakistan has been tepid. While the act of imposing martial law was condemned the Bush Administration quickly undercut that by announcing their support for Musharraf was unchanged. Meanwhile, Bush's rightwing zealots have been aggressively pitching the line that Musharraf's dictatorship is a good thing. (Liberty Street has a excellent compendium)
Musharraf's despotism should not be undermined by democratist pressure ~ Redstate (the single most outrageous sentence on the subject I have seen)
To the leadership of the United States, the population of Pakistan is chattel. As God King, Musharraf can do with them as he wishes. What is tremendously sad is we have seen this before, in Iran. In 1978, the United States continued to support an Iranian dictatorship even after public uprisings began. By the time the revolution was finished Iran was a country that hated America as much as they hated America's good friend, their deposed Shah.

Other References: Iran Revolution, Bush Shielding Musharraf, Questions Not Asked, Bush/Musharraf war on the Rule of Law

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