Our Man in Pakistan

Bill Moyers opened his show with the Pakistani crisis this past weekend. Here's video-



I got into a debate this past weekend on this topic with a conservative commenter on the LJDemocrats community. It was over my post about the crappy media coverage on the origins of the emergency rule. After throwing ridiculous strawmen at me (Barack Obama running for President = what Musharraf is doing... seriously!) and refusing to address the main issue, all he would do was shrug his shoulders and say "We want an ally in Pakistan who is helping us fight terrorists."

And there folks is the collapse of President Bush's democracy agenda, which looked at the world in stark black and white terms. Those who argued that maybe Iraq was better off under Saddam Hussein-- the odious, but secular, dictator-- because he kept the influence of an al Qaeda or an Iran at bay, and argued that throwing the flames of war all across the region wouldn't solve all its ills? Perhaps they weren't moonbat monsters after all. Yes, maybe Musharraf is better than what would follow his fall... but such a compromise invalidates the entire foreign policy of the past 7 years.

Sometimes you make compromises to avoid larger conflicts. You use diplomacy, etc.

Of course, as Moyers notes, previous such compromises (arming strongmen to fight common enemies)-- Hussein, bin Laden, etc-- blew up in our faces. I hope this one's different.