From Bill Roggio:
Over 500 Taliban fighters under the command of Maulana Muhammad Alam poured into Shangla and took control of the district office and police station in Alpuri "without facing any resistance from the government," the Daily Times reported. "All government functionaries, including the DPO [District Police Officer] and DCO [District Coordination Officer], left the area the moment they heard of the fall of Shangla Top police station, located at the border between Swat and Shangla." The district courts are also under Taliban control, Dawn reported...Things aren't looking good. Nevertheless, they lend less credence to Bhutto's implicit claim that Musharraf is a self-serving arbitrary dictator, whereas the balance Mushy's aptly performed tight rope walking for the past 6 years required was bound to break, and since he's got no more rope to stand on, these drastic steps are but a slim few of his options. I think he honestly believes he is doing the best thing he can to save Pakistan.
The fall of Shangla comes as the Pakistani army took control of security operations in neighboring Swat, where Fazlullah has essentially taken control of the district. Martial law was imposed after hundreds of police and paramilitary soldiers surrendered weapons and themselves to Fazlullah's Taliban.
But what Musharraf believes doesn't matter; what does matter is if the threat to democracy from Musharraf is greater than the threat to Pakistan from the Taliban and other extremists. The only things that are becoming clear in this mess, is that Pakistan is increasingly a threat to the world, and Bhutto is increasingly the self-serving politician.
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I guess the question would be: Is democracy a good thing...especially in a country where the general populace tends toward extremism and violence?
Our founders argued quite emphatically that democracy was a less than perfect vehicle for ensuring a just society:
"A common passion or interest will, in almost every case, be felt by a majority of the whole; a communication and concert result from the form of government itself; and there is nothing to check the inducements to sacrifice the weaker party or an obnoxious individual. Hence it is that such democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property; and have in general been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths." --James Madison, Federalist #10
I don't know what the answers are, but deposing a dictator who seems to be intent upon preventing his country from devolving into a nuclear armed version of Afghanistan when it was ruled by the Taliban doesn't seem to be the most prudent move on the part of the rest of the world.
"Fifty-one percent of a nation can establish a totalitarian regime, suppress minorities and still remain democratic."
-- Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn
"Is democracy a good thing... especially in a country where the general populace tends toward extremism and violence?
Our founders argued quite emphatically that democracy was a less than perfect vehicle for ensuring a just society"
Even Winston Churchill agreed, as do I, that democracy sucks, but it's the best we have. At least for those that want it.
I feel for Pakistan. They've got half their population thinking democracy is voting for sharia. Maybe for a limited definition of democracy, but for a substantive approach, minority rights, majority rule, due process, rule of law, all are ingredients.
You're right, the process of democracy is not always the answer, as it can be very dangerous, especially in times of widespread violence, revolt, etc. Imagine if we valued democracy and self rule over rights, the South would've voted their way out and slavery may still be an issue, a foreign issue, but still.
I think the same can be applied to Mushy's undemocratic defense of relative* secularism (for an Islamic country at least).
Whoops, maybe Musharraf's invoking of Abraham Lincoln slipped into my subconscious, I hadn't realized that until now.
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