Some good writing on this subject elsewhere:
- Brian Ulrich at American Footprints.
- Robert Farley at Tapped.
- Hilzoy at Obsidian Wings.
- Juan Cole looks at the Urdu press.
- Barnett Rubin's continuing coverage.
To the layman's eye, Musharraf appears to be conducting a stunningly audacious bait-and-switch of employing a lot of rhetoric about Islamic extremism to justify a coup conducted agains the Supreme Court of Pakistan though there's no indication that the Supreme Court is some kind of hotbed of extremism. Indeed, unlike in some other countries (Egypt or Saudi Arabia, say) I don't believe Islamists are the main opponents of the regime at all. Indeed, Musharraf didn't stage his original coup against Islamic extremists, he staged it against Nawaz Sharif who'd come into conflict with the military because of his efforts to promote reconciliation with India.
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Heads in the Sand
With black-suited lawyers manning the protests, it becomes obvious that this is a coup against the rule of law. The PK Supreme Court was poised to rule against Musharraf's election. It's as if Nixon had done the same thing, abolished the existing Supreme Court and then named Carswell Chief Justice, the weekend before our Supreme Court issued its ruling on the 18 1/2 minute gap tape case.
Of course, we have been and will, in reality if not in Condi's stylings, be on the wrong side of this.
Posted by Wendell | November 5, 2007 12:21 PM