The Pakistan Question

Michelle Malkin on the recent government take over in Pakistan

Pakistan has had democracy in the past, with mixed results. There is a moderate, secular populace there that Musharraf would be wise to leave in peace, and he’s not doing that. But. There’s also a moderate, secular populace in Iraq but sectarians still managed to take power by democratic means there. There’s also a moderate, secular populace in Turkey, yet the Islamists keep on increasing their power. If we ought to have learned one lesson from Iraq and the PA, it’s that fostering democracy in turbulent Islamic countries takes time. It can’t and shouldn’t be done prematurely. If it is, the tendency is for people in those countries to vote their religion more than their politics or notions of freedom. Elections are not a panacea and they’re unlikely to fix Pakistan’s problems. Elections in the current environment may make matters infinitely worse.

In a nuclear armed country with a population that thinks highly of Osama bin Laden and sharia law, the risks are just too great. By pushing on Musharraf too hard, we’re running the risk of morphing him into the Shah of Iran and turning Pakistan into the new Afghanistan.