So, candidates, what would you be doing now if you were in the Oval Office? What is your short-and long-term strategy for turning around a difficult and menacing political situation in a vitally important country? How would you factor in the threat from the fact that Pakistan has a nuclear bomb?
The voters have a right to know. No soundbites, please.
The New York Times' editors think conventional wisdom would make Giuliani, McCain and Clinton the beneficiaries of unrest in Pakistan. But then voters may be smarter than that or -- at least -- tired of terrorism and Giuliani/Bush-style hate-mongering.
Pakistan’s unraveling should be a reminder to voters that foreign policy matters. But instead of posturing about who hates the bad guys more–we’ve had more than enough of that–we would like to see the candidates take on the genuinely difficult questions, including how they would now manage American relations with Pakistan’s decidedlyundemocratic president, ex-general Pervez Musharraf.
The Washington Post analysis this afternoon sees Bush administration policies taking a severe blow.
The abrupt loss of a leading pro-U.S. political figure threatens the transition to democracy in Pakistan and leaves both Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and Bush administration strategies vulnerable, they said.
"Our foreign policy has relied on her presence as a stabilizing force. She had a big public following . . . Without her, we will have to regroup," said Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), who is in Pakistan and was scheduled to meet Bhutto tonight. "It complicates life for the American government."
The Bush administration had worked for more than a year to orchestrate a deal between Bhutto and Musharraf that would allow her to return from exile and run for office as a means of bolstering pro-Western moderates and creating a wider political front against growing extremist movements in Pakistan, especially along its border with Afghanistan.
Without Bhutto, Musharraf has virtually no major political allies willing to take positions widely unpopular in Pakistan but critical to U.S. interests. A Pew Survey last summer found only 15 percent of Pakistanis had a favorable view of the United States.
All the more reason to elect a leader from among experienced, educated moderates next November. November seems a very long way off when one thinks about Bush, Cheney, and Rice handling our relationship with Pakistan in the meantime. The administration counted on Bhutto in spite of the risks she ran when she return to Pakistan to become active politically. Sure they should have realized that the risk were serious, that she might not survive. But they didn't. According to NPR, the Bush administration (once again!) has no back-up plan for dealing with Musharraf and with the threats of Islamic extremism in the event of Benazir Bhutto's death.
