November 6, 2007- The Emergency

   A few days ago, we had an event occur that is having worldwide repercussions and will continue to do so as long as it goes on. This past Saturday morning, there were some extraordinary events over in Pakistan, events that are holding the future of the nation at bay. To begin with, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf essentially dissolved his own government, putting himself out of a job as President, but he had another hat to wear, that as head general of the Pakistani military, and he out on his military jacket a little later that day and went and imposed a State of Emergency in Pakistan, sending out the troops into the streets to arrest anyone and everyone that opposes him and to barricade Judges and legislators in their homes and/or arrest them, shutting down TV and radio stations that he does not like, and doing the same with the Internet. These are extreme measures. about the most extreme that Musharraf is allowed to do, and not an everyday occurrence, even in Pakistan. Musharraf says that he did not want to have to do that, but that he was forced to by Islamic extremists, who have made their presence felt in Pakistan as of late. The biggest thing that they have done as of late is to try and  assassinate Benazir Bhutto, the former Pakistani President, because they do not want her coming back at all. That was the last straw according to Musharraf and he had do what ehe did last weekend for the good of the country. So he grabbed absolute power and declared martial Law, and in the process, he put the upcoming Pakistani parlimantary elections on hold, for as much as a year, he says. In a flash, Musharraf changed Pakistan and created an international crisis in the process. Reactions to all of this has not been positive at all, especially from Washington, who is terribly distraught over these happenings. The reason that they are this way is not any concern over the state of Pakistan, but the fact that Pakistan declares itself to be an "ally" of America during the War On Terror. That gets the Bush Administration concerned that in the State Of Emergency, Pakistan will get away from its assisting the USA in the war, however the fuck they are supposed to be doing that, and America does not need that problem rith now, as their plate is very full. So they have been very strong in their condemnation of the events of Saturday, and urged Musharraf to rescind all of that and to get Pakistan "back on the track to democracy" and other such diplomatic tomes. However, that does not seem likely, as the State of Emergency in Pakistan is going to be around for a while, whether Washington likes it or not. Every day, Musharraf goes after more and more of his enemies and either quarantines them or arrests them, and the grip of the State tightens daily. It does not seem like he is interested in listening to what his "ally" America has to say about it all, he says that this is all an internal Pakistani matter that he shall handle as he sees fit. That has created another crisis in a part of the world where crises are as common as sand and almost as plentiful as well. Now Pakistan has gone into the realm of uncertainty, it technically does not have a government except for the military, and America desperately wants stability in the region, and a major country there going this route does not do them any good at all on any levels. Now, as Washington and the rest of the world anxiously waits to see what Musharraf is going to do next, he holds a very powerful card in his hand and is now playing it for all that he can get out of it.

   Musharraf says that he had to do this because of Muslim extremists, and that is not a far-fetched notion in his country. Pakistan had a problem with these people long before he came into power, but the problem has become steadily worse ever since he took over from Bhutto. When Bhutto was President, she had no tolerance for Islamic extremism at all, and cracked down on thoss fuckers hard. As a result, they were pushed into the background big time in Pakistan, and had nowhere near the clout and sway that they held in other Muslim societies. However, that all changed when Musharraf took over, because he did not just shun and persecute these people, he wanted to strike deals with them. As long as they did not try and overthrow his government, they were free to do their thing, have their schools and spread their messages and shit, as long as his government got a piece of the financial action, all was cool. So the Islamic extremists got a haven from which to work, something that we have seen them use against the Americans they are fighting in Afghanistan.  It is well known that there are all sorts of Al-Queda and Taliban safe havens on the mountains and villages on the Pakistani side of the Pakistan/Afghanistan border, and it is widely believed that this is where Osama bin Laden has been holed up, protected by his people with the full knowledge of Musharraf's government. Islamic extremism is alive and well in Pakistan nowadays, with chapters in  all the cities and towns, and lots of adherents to the causes they espouse. These fuckers have been growing increasingly bold and trying to get Pakistan to have one of those theocratic governments popular in the Islamic world. Their blatant attempt on the life of Bhutto and then admitting that they were behind it afterwards made it clear that they were now a force to be reckoned with in Pakistani society again, like in the good old days. Musharraf has always said that he was against Islamic extremism, so once he saw that it had gotten that out of control in his country, he did what he felt he had to to stop them.  He may be a Muslim, but he is not an extremist, he is a secular politcian that rose through the ranks of the  Pakistani military to the top, something that he could have never done in a Muslim theocracy, so he has good reasons to not want that shit to take over. Pay him off yes, but take over, no. It seems that they have gotten to big for their turbans and decided that they do want to take over in Pakistan, and Nusharraf had no choice except to do what he did to stop that from happening. America let Pakistan off the hook for a massive debt in exchange for being friendly to them, and they reserve the right to reinstate that debt if they wish, and Musharraf does not want that, because getting that debt shit done with was one of the reasons that he was able to make Pakistan's economy better for its people and if it is reinstated, it will ruin Pakistan's economy, and also his political career, so it is not for religious reasons that he feels that he has to crack down on these fuckers, but for political ones. It is not worth it for him to just tell Washington fuck you and let the chips fall where they may, he has way too much to lose here, and he had this dramatic weapon in his arsenal and he is using it to its fullest advantage. He knows that while Washington wil be pissed off that he declared a State Of Emergency, they  cannot be pissed off at the reason that he did, to crack down on those that Washington considers the enemies, so he did not have that much to lose doing what he has done.

   However, there is another reason that he did what he did, and that all revolves around that Benazir Bhutto bitch. When Musharraf defeated her in the elections, he thought that he had seen the last of her, and she did leave Pakistan altogether, going into exile. He fucking hates the bitch, she is his major political enemy, and he kicked her ass out for good, or so he thought. he had it fixed that he could keep her out of Pakistan if it was just her against him, but if she had a powerful friend on her side, that changed everything ,and that is exactly what happened. America never liked the way Musharraf did business with them, they could never trust his ass, at least with Bhutto, she never doublecrossed America, Musharraf does it all the time. Washington got very nostalgic for those good old days of the two Bhutto Administrations, and they decided that they wanted her back in Pakistani politics. She was more than willing to listen to them, as she never wanted to leave in the first place, so they worked out a deal where America would stand behind her making not only a physical, but a political comeback in Pakistan. One big difference between her and Musharraf  is that she was never in the military, she cannot, being a woman, and when she was President, Pakistan had two separate people in charge of th Presidency and Military. Under Musharraf, he control both, and Washington does not like  military men in charge of any governments, they feel that they should always be two distinctly separate things. Under Musharraf, they are not getting that, and they feel strongly that this is part of the reason why the Islamnic extremists are gaing such popularity there. So Washington came up with this plan where they bring Bhutto back into the government, and she and Musharraf have some kind of power-sharing deal, co-Presidents so to speak, to there would be civilian control of the Presidenct, not military control alone. Bhutto loved that shit, as that was her ticket back to the top, but Musharraf sees it differently. He wants no part of that deal, he thought that he had gotten rid of Bhutto years ago, and does not want to see her back. The key to all of this was those elections that were supposed to happen soon, before the end of this year, I think. Bhutto enjoys a resurgence of popularity amongst the Pakistani people, as they see her as tough on these extremists, and would almost surely get elected like Washington wants. Musharraf wants zero part of that shit, and has been backed into a corner on this. Washington has been putting on the pressure big time for him to accept this deal, and when they put the pressure on, it can be real hard to resist it. Musharraf may wear two hats on Pakistan, but even he is not strong enough to withstand the pressure from Washington, the fact that Bhutto even returned to Pakistan in the first place shows that, and he had to makie a decision quickly, and this is what he came up with, the State Of Emergency. Like everyone these days, he used the Islamic extremists as an excuse to do what he did, and sure they are a problem in Pakistan, but not that big of a one that he would need to do this to combat them, so that is just scare rhetoric for the masses. He really did not want Election Day to be this year or anytime soon in the new one either, that was the emergency that he was faced with, a political one, not a National one, but since he wore the two hats that he did in Pakistan, he could treat what was essentially just a personal emergency like a National one and use the same tactics to deal with it as he would with a real National one, and that is exactly what he has done.

   It is clear that Musharraf does not like the deal that the Bush Administration is offering him and wants a new one. The problem with that is that the Bush Administration is not known for re-negotiating any offers that they do make, they operate strictly on a take it ot leave it and suffer the consequences basis. They will not listen to any kind of compromise that Musharraf may come up with, they have their minds made up and will just force this deal on him one way or another. That means that Musharraf had one option left, and that was to wait until after January 20, 2009 occurs and then start negotiating all over again with whatever new Presidential Administration takes office. To do this, he had to create a stall tactic, and the State Of Emergecy will do just fine, thank you very much. He is saying that the elections could be delayed by as much a a year, putting them right after the American ones, and when he would know for sure who was taking over in 2009. He has had it with the Bush Administration and does not want to deal with them anymore and has just put things in the deep freeze for a year to run out the clock. He obviously has other plans as to how he can run things better than he has without having to take Bhutto on as a partner, he showed that he is willing to give up one of the positions that he holds, he gave up the Presidency when he dissolved the government, he just does not want to give anything up to her. He could find someone moere to his liking to be partners with if Washington just would let him, but he knows that the Bush Administration will not let him, they have a plan of their own, so he wants to wait until the next Administration takes office and strike a new deal with them. The Bush Administration knows this too, and that is what has them so pissed off, but Musharraf left the door open to them, all he is telling them is that he wants a better deal without Bhutto in it, and then he'll play ball. Eventually, Washington will see that he is serious here, and they know how easy it would be to run something like this for a year, the damage of Musharraf  politically would be zero in that short amount of time, so the Bush Administration is ging to have to make some changes in their deal before they leave, or else risk going home with nothing here, and they would rather fucking die than have that happen. So once the inital anger wears off, Washington will come up with some other deal for Musharraf to take, because he wants to make a deal with the current Administration, since they have so much money to throw around here, the next Administration may not have as much, so Musharraf wants to cash in now, and that is why he did what he did, he wants to speed up the process. If it does not work, oh well, as far as he is concerned he'll get a blank slate to start over with and cut a deal with whoever takes over in Washington. Either way, he wins big here, and that was the real reason why he did all this, he saw that he was in the position to cash in his chips, and is doing just that. By pure providence, he finds himself sitting in a catbird's seat that few could ever hope to achieve and they guy is not about to pass that up and score as much as he can out of it all. The State Of Emergency thing was the trump card that he held and the key to the biggest score of his life, and he sees it as time to cash that baby in, and if he has to suspend governments and rights and arrest legislators and judges to do it, so be it, as long as he gets way rich off of it all in the end. That is what this is all about , Musharraf helping Musharraf and no one else, and the only energency exists in his warped and twisted mind.

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