A portrait of Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf is burnt by demonstrators during a rally in Multan, Pakistan on Aug. 14, 2008. (AP Photo/Khalid Tanveer)
In the years since 9/11, in the country that has become the hideout and base of Al Queda and the Taliban, the United States poured billions of dollars into the regime of Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf.
He was a general who took power in a bloodless coup. He was disdainful of the workings of democracy. He was America’s man, formally, in the war on terror.
And today he’s headed out — resigning in a hail of criticism from Pakistanis fed up with the Musharraf era. And the Taliban is on the rise.
This hour, On Point: Musharraf goes, and Pakistan and the U.S. ask, what next in the world’s most dangerous neighborhood?
You can join the conversation. Is this a crisis? A triumph for democracy? A turn toward hope? Or chaos? Tell us what you think.
-Tom Ashbrook
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Guests:
joining us from Islamabad, Pakistan, is Candace Rondeaux, foreign correspondent for The Washington Post. She reports here on Musharraf’s resignation.
Joining us in our studio is Adil Najam, professor of international relations and director of the Pardee Center at Boston University.
From East Hanover, New Jersey, we’re joined by Azmat Hassan, former Pakistani ambassador to Morocco, Syria, Lebanon and Malaysia, and former adviser to Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif. He is now a professor at the Whitehead School of Diplomacy at Seton Hall University.
And joining us from Washington is Daniel Markey, senior fellow for India, Pakistan, and South Asia at the Council on Foreign Relations and a former member of the State Department’s Policy Planning Staff for South and Central Asia.
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Multimedia:
The AP offers this video report on Pervez Musharraf’s resignation earlier today:
Please have your panel address the following: It has been reported that one of the reasons and/or consequences of the resignation is that President Musharraf’s role in the “disappearance” of “terrorist” suspects turned over to CIA or other American agencies will not be aired? True? Are there ways of uncovering the truth or falsehood of the allegation?
Posted by George Holoch, on August 18th, 2008 at 8:45 am UTCThe Bush administration really has a knack for picking the wrong puppets for their play, don’t they?
Posted by John Petesch, on August 18th, 2008 at 9:26 am UTCMusharraf is one in a long list of corruptable leaders the us has backed on the surface while undermining in reallity, and as long Pakistan’s gov’t remains an ally in the ‘war on terror’ the next leader will have no more success.
Terrorism must be recognized as a symptom of us policy and the staple of a military-industrial-congressional diet. A diet called ‘un-auditable’ yearly by the GAO and more than half of the overall budget.
The us needs states to harbor terrorists, no matter the surface rhetoric.
Posted by Nate, on August 18th, 2008 at 11:09 am UTCAzmat Hassan was a speaker at my HS for Model United Nations. He came off as a very knowledgeable scholar, and I respect him greatly.
Posted by Howard, on August 26th, 2008 at 3:01 pm UTC