The Straw man and the Scarecrow: the Eagle builds a nest
Musharaff, the Straw man and the Scarecrow, scares only the crows and not the eagle. The Eagle of the US has a built a nest on the scarecrow's head, that is the FATA: NO, it is not some kind of cheese; it is the Federally Administered Tribal Areas in pakistan. The distinction this area enjoyed as the place of indomitable people from the time Alexander the Cretin to the present is already compromised and will come under civilized control. What could not be done for millennia is being done by the Coalition Forces. Godspeed and more power to them. The culture dominated by guns, narcotics and terrorism, and glamorized by madrasah fundamentalism,will come to an end, because anything otherwise is inimical to the West, the US, India and the world.
As far as Musharaff is concerned, it is apparent that brawn rules over the brains of Musharaff, that is if anything is left after years of thumping on his feet.. No amount of legitimization will render the brawn brainy capable of good judgment. He seems to be enjoying all the attention he is getting from the West and esp the US, talking the tough talk of befitting nuclear reply to India, extracting a ransom from the West, the US and Japan and at the same time speaking with a forked tongue. He must be immensely pleased to find out that Bush who once had no idea who this straw man was, is chanting his name as a mantra on a daily basis. -JPR
Dawn.com Opinion Section
A fixation for legitimacy By Kuldip Nayar
Military dictators have a strange fixation for legitimacy. They arrange fictitious election or hold rigged referendum to don the clothes of a democrat. It is popular support they seek and it is the lack of that support which makes them go over the make-believe exercises of acceptability.
But instead of telling what he had done to check terrorism, he said that there was no infiltration. Can you believe it? Only concrete evidence on the ground can give him credibility. But then his style is that of bluff and bluster from the days of the coup after the Kargil war he had orchestrated. |
