T K Vogel — research & analysis

International policy has failed to keep Pakistan and Palestine from inching closer to the brink: both are potential failed states and both could take their entire region down with them, especially nuclear-armed Pakistan. For once, the intellectually lazy response – to blame it on the Americans – is correct.

The basic American mistake in dealing with Pakistan has been to put all its money on the country’s autocratic ruler, General Pervez Musharraf, who came to power in a bloodless coup in 1999, and to dismiss a democratic alternative as too messy, an inclination which was magnified once the ‘war on terror’ came along. Indeed, Musharraf’s coup was cautiously welcomed by many Pakistanis who were fed up with the venality of their democratically elected leaders. The relatively brief spells of democracy that the country had experienced since emerging from the partition of India in 1947 had not been especially happy and Musharraf seemed a rather enlightened sort of military ruler. The decisive moment in his relationship with Washington came immediately after 11 September 2001, when the US confronted him with the choice of supporting the Americans’ anti-terrorism campaign or feel the wrath of a bellicose administration bent on revenge.

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