What's the Deal with Pakistan?

A friend of mine IM'ed me trying to figure out what is actually happening in Pakistan behind the vague headlines of 'emergency rule'. I found this good, succinct summary from-- where else?-- Wikipedia-

On November 3, 2007 President Musharraf declared an emergency rule across Pakistan and purported to suspend the Constitution, imposing martial law. In Islamabad, troops apparently entered the Supreme Court and were surrounding the judges' homes and opposition leaders were put on house arrest. Troops have been deployed inside state-run TV and radio stations, while independent channels have gone off air. Land and mobile telephone lines are down in Islamabad. The court was to decide whether Musharraf was eligible to run for election last month while remaining army chief.

A new chief justice has been appointed, due to the refusal of the previous chief justice to endorse the emergency order, declaring it unconstitutional.

To quote Atrios, "No one could have predicted that an unelected dictator who took power in a military coup would behave just like that."

The latest updates this morning are that "Police fired tear gas and battered thousands of lawyers protesting .... as Western allies threatened to review [foreign] aid." Fun!

Politically-speaking, the reaction of the right is again revealing (as their reactions to crises in Afghanistan and Myanmar have been). "Is Musharraf a patriot? Tyrant?," Blogs For Bush's Mark Noonan asks in a non-committal manner. The National Review's Kathryn Jean Lopez laments this turn of events, but also notes that, as odious as Musharraf may be, the thought of what would follow his fall is even more frightening. More proof that a) their supposed disdain for dictatorial thug leaders in that region is inconsistent and only activated when convenient, and b) the dirty liberals are right that these issues are never black-and-white.

Some in the State Department, meanwhile, are apparently glad to have a distraction from Iraq. Somehow I think the majority of our diplomats in that region aren't finding a silver lining in all this.