COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS: If anyone in the Muslim world still believed in the Bush administration’s historic promise to support democracy over political expediency, those hopes are being shattered with the crisis unfolding in Pakistan.
If ever there was a clear-cut case for the administration to put action behind its rhetoric, this is it. And yet Washington is standing behind Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, even after he imposed emergency rule, suspended the country’s constitution, muzzled the media and continues to round up hundreds of political opponents.
In June 2005, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told the world that the United States would no longer tolerate repressive regimes in the name of keeping political stability. “For 60 years, my country, the United States, pursued stability at the expense of democracy in this region here in the Middle East — and we achieved neither,” she said at the American University in Cairo. “Now, we are taking a different course. We are supporting the democratic aspirations of all people.” U.S. must cut ties to Pakistan dictator (more)
Mark Alexander
