It's not that simple, Max.
The Left cries on and on about
realism based foreign policy...well how would abandoning Musharraf be that? If we lose Pakistan, we lose military capabilities in Afghnistan. Which post-bloc, undemocratic regime would you like to make nice with in their place? Uzbekistan (they soured on us after we denounced some of their past behavior)? Kazakhstan?
China???
Abandon Pakistan, and you abandon a legitimate focal point in the war on terrorism.
And who should we instead support in Pakistan?
Ali Eteraz recently put it best:
Quote:
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Musharraf is not Enlightened, its true; how can he be when he is a dictator? However, is there an alternative? Perhaps the reign of extra-judicial police killings and smuggler’s nepotism that electing Benazir Bhutto assures? How about the Islamist overlordship of former Zia ul Haq protege Nawaz Sharif? Better yet, perhaps the assuring democracy of Maulana Fazlur Rahman, the aspirant Caliph from the Jamat e Islami? If you were a Pakistani citizen, what would you choose? Suffer and fight in order to bring feudal lords and mullahs into power, or just go back to work and let the chips fall where they may? Idealism or pessimism?
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Of course none of this is preferable. Watching a junta arrest lawyers and suspend elections is terrible, but what precisely should we do?