Musharraf Sure Knows What a Lame Duck Is...
Anatomy of a lame duck president:
We'll excuse the countless times Bush has used his role as Commander in Chief to justify his domestic policies and actions . But seriously, "You ought to have elections soon, and you need to take off your uniform?" Does that sound blunt? Or even forceful? And what's with the phone call? When a country you're using as a poster child for you foreign policy suddenly becomes a dictatorship overnight, I think a resolution requires more than a phone call. How about going to the country, or asking the guy to come by for a face-to-face visit?
But it seems to have worked, because:
Wait a minute...February 15th? As in "in three and a half months from now?" What an example of foreign nations respecting the power of the US President. Bush asks this guy to embrace democracy, and his response is basically, "I'll do it when I'm good and ready, bitch!"
And will Bush press any harder? I doubt it. Can we trust Mushy? Hard to tell, but former prime minister Benazir Bhutto isn't exactly welcoming this announcement with open arms:
Like Fred Kaplan said, Pakistan was Bush's (and Condi Rice's) model for democracy in a region not known for it. Up until a few days ago, it was the one tangible example that bombing the hell out of Iraq and making weekly threats toward Iran could lead to everlasting peace.
Now, Bush has left one country in shambles (Iraq), another is still a hotbed for terrorists (Afghanistan) and a third that's become a dictatorship (Pakistan). But we're turning a corner!
The difference between how Bush addresses Mushy and how he handles Congress (specifically the Democrats) couldn't be any more stark. So again I ask, why can't the US Congress see what the rest of the world sees? Why can't they acknowledge that if they push for the things they know the American people want (health care reform, getting out of Iraq) and push hard, Bush will cave?
On Wednesday, President Bush telephoned General Musharraf for the first time since the crisis began and bluntly told him that he had to return Pakistan to civilian rule, hold elections and step down as chief of the military, as he had promised. Mr. Bush called him from the Oval Office at 11:30 a.m. Washington time, and spoke for about 20 minutes, according to the White House.
“My message was that we believe strongly in elections, and that you ought to have elections soon, and you need to take off your uniform,” Mr. Bush said later, appearing at George Washington’s mansion in Mount Vernon, Va., with President Nicolas Sarkozy of France. “You can’t be the president and the head of the military at the same time.”
We'll excuse the countless times Bush has used his role as Commander in Chief to justify his domestic policies and actions . But seriously, "You ought to have elections soon, and you need to take off your uniform?" Does that sound blunt? Or even forceful? And what's with the phone call? When a country you're using as a poster child for you foreign policy suddenly becomes a dictatorship overnight, I think a resolution requires more than a phone call. How about going to the country, or asking the guy to come by for a face-to-face visit?
But it seems to have worked, because:
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has decided that parliamentary elections will be held by Feb. 15 and reiterated plans to step down as head of the Army, partial concessions to the pressure building on him from Washington and inside Pakistan since he declared a state of emergency over the weekend.
Wait a minute...February 15th? As in "in three and a half months from now?" What an example of foreign nations respecting the power of the US President. Bush asks this guy to embrace democracy, and his response is basically, "I'll do it when I'm good and ready, bitch!"
And will Bush press any harder? I doubt it. Can we trust Mushy? Hard to tell, but former prime minister Benazir Bhutto isn't exactly welcoming this announcement with open arms:
"It sounds a little vague," she said when told of the president's announcement. "That's not a date. We want an election date."
Like Fred Kaplan said, Pakistan was Bush's (and Condi Rice's) model for democracy in a region not known for it. Up until a few days ago, it was the one tangible example that bombing the hell out of Iraq and making weekly threats toward Iran could lead to everlasting peace.
Now, Bush has left one country in shambles (Iraq), another is still a hotbed for terrorists (Afghanistan) and a third that's become a dictatorship (Pakistan). But we're turning a corner!
The difference between how Bush addresses Mushy and how he handles Congress (specifically the Democrats) couldn't be any more stark. So again I ask, why can't the US Congress see what the rest of the world sees? Why can't they acknowledge that if they push for the things they know the American people want (health care reform, getting out of Iraq) and push hard, Bush will cave?
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