Pakistan: Terrorism's Last Domino
    By Fr d ric Koller
    Le Temps

    Saturday 21 July 2007

    Pervez Musharraf is in an unenviable position. Disclaimed by the highest judicial decision-making bodies, attacked by the Islamists - the Taliban and al Qaeda at the forefront - accused of laxity by the United States, under pressure from his Chinese ally, protested by the secular and democratic street, the putschist general no longer has anything but his army to allow him to hold on to his presidential seat. That is the crucial ingredient for holding on to power in the "land of the pure." But the situation is a lot for any man to deal with. No matter how cunning he may be. It could be that the Islamabad tightrope walker has ended up turning everyone against him by dint of aligning all the chumps at once. But what choice did he have?

    The Taliban regime's principal collaborator and a pariah of the international community (with the exception of China) when he took power in 1999, Pervez Musharraf restored his "virginity" by opportunely allying himself with the war against "international terrorism." For three years, he was a fairly diligent student on the "Good" side, participating in the arrest of numerous extremists. But for the last 18 months, the situation has been moving. Pakistan's northwest, controlled by the Pashtun tribes (brothers to the Afghan Pashtun tribes from which the Taliban came), is once again a terrorist sanctuary where the Pakistani Army intervenes less and less. Three months ago, Musharraf went so far as to sign a truce with the officials in these regions - under pressure from his army, within which the Pashtun element is influential. Geopolitical realism - which dictates that the Pakistani government maintain its traditional Pashtun ally as long as international forces are incapable of building a secure and democratic Afghanistan - has little by little superimposed itself on the war against terrorism agenda. By virtue of the domino effect, the failure in Afghanistan now threatens Pakistan's stability.

    Realizing that the ally from whose territory al Qaeda could once again threaten its security is unreliable; Washington now threatens to intervene militarily in Pakistan. "Irresponsible" and "dangerous" retorts Islamabad caustically.

    Washington is behind by a war. By attacking Iraq under false pretenses rather than consolidating Afghanistan and supporting a Pakistan rallied to their cause, the Neoconservatives allowed the hardening of the terrorist threats in their - nonetheless well-identified - sanctuaries. That's what the Democrats constantly denounce. The Bush administration is realizing it a little late. And Pakistan, in a definite way, also pays the price for that mistake.