Since we just had practice turning back the clocks an hour, let's turn them back a little further. Say to 1999.
On September 21, an unnamed State Department official issued a warning to the Pakistan army through the Reuters news agency, saying Washington would deal very seriously with any attempt to use extra-constitutional methods to remove Prime Minister Sharif.
You got that, would be coup plotters? The US is not going to put up with military overthrows of democratically elected governments. Now, just a minor adjustment....
American officials have also called for a return to democracy in Pakistan, but General Musharraf has adamantly refused to give any timetable for new elections. ... Gen. Musharraf declared a state of emergency, suspended the constitution and the Parliament and assumed sweeping authority to run the country.
Okay. Now you've done it. The United States of America is not about to tolerate this! Let's move that clock up again, shall we?
President George W. Bush gave a conspicuous boost Tuesday to President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan, meeting with him at the Camp David presidential retreat and praising him for his help "dismantling the networks" of Al Qaeda terrorism.
...
Musharraf spoke, in turn, of a "special relationship," words more often used here to describe the close U.S.-Britain relationship. He thanked Bush for the "special gesture" of the invitation to Camp David, a first for any South Asian leader.
Wait a second. This makes it sound like one blow is enough to make us abandon all pretense of supporting democratic government and embrace dictators. That can't be right. Can it? Maybe that's barely acceptable if your new best friend is the only chance to stop nuclear terrorism.
The United States has supported Pakistan's presidential pardon of Abdul Qadeer Khan, after the father of the nation's nuclear program admitted he gave nuclear weapons technology to other countries.
President Pervez Musharraf's decision to pardon Khan was an internal Pakistani matter, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said.
So, we're willing to cheer this guy on when he's both a coup leader, and involved in spreading nuclear weapon technology. He must be doing one hell of a job on terrorism with that billion dollars a year we're paying him, and all that new military gear we're providing. Right?
The United States is continuing to make large payments of roughly $1 billion a year to Pakistan for what it calls reimbursements to the country’s military for conducting counterterrorism efforts along the border with Afghanistan, even though Pakistan’s president decided eight months ago to slash patrols through the area where Al Qaeda and Taliban fighters are most active.
Overthrew democracy. Supports spread of nuclear weapons. Doesn't chase down terrorists. But he is supporting new elections in January, so that'll make it all better.
The government of Gen. Pervez Musharraf, the Pakistani president, making no concessions a day after seizing emergency powers, rounded up leading opposition figures and said Sunday that parliamentary elections could be delayed for as long as a year.
Security forces were reported to have detained about 500 opposition party figures, lawyers and human rights advocates on Sunday, and about a dozen privately owned television news stations remained off the air. International broadcasters, including the BBC and CNN, were also cut off.
Or maybe not. Still, it's not as if in a year, or two, or five, Pakistan will be governed by people just a touch miffed at our support for Shah Pinochet Musharraf.
After all, Pakistan is not at all like other countries where we've propped up egotistical madmen. Not at all.
Nuclear-armed Pakistan is teetering on the verge of chaos after the imposition of Emergency and US officials fear that the result could be every American's nightmare -- nuclear material or know-how, or even a nuclear bomb, falling into the hands of terrorists.
When you buy a dictator, what do you get? A dictator. How stupid do you have to be not to realize this?
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