Watandost Commentary:
September 21, 2006
There are strong indicators that something is amiss. Apparently, Musharraf didn't take the Bush admiminstration into confidence before striking a deal with tribal leaders in Pakistan. Musharraf is of the view that dividends of this strategy will be apparent within a span of a year or so, but Bush administration impatiently expects results sooner than that. President Bush's recent statement about sanctioning a US military strike in Pakistan provided there is a credible piece of info about Osama and Co., shows lack of communication between Musharraf and the White House. The statement will not go down well with Pakistan army and intelligence, who are the primary constituency of Musharraf. Most probably Musharraf has disappointed Bush administration on some issue - Bugti killing, peace deal with tribals, cozying up with China, allowing some extremist groups to continue to operate - it can be any of these. Musharraf's admission that the US had threatened to bomb Pakistan in the aftermath of the 9/11 tragedy was unwarranted - and takes away credit from him for taking a bold decision to change Pakistan's policy about support to Taliban. It may lead to good sales of his forthcoming memoir "in the line of fire" - if that was his intention in disclosing this fact (though Armitage says he didn't use this language). Armitage must be surprised by Musharraf's "disclosure" especially after recently publishing a pro-Musharraf piece in a major American newspaper - an increasingly uncommon practice.
Also see a news video by Reuters about the potential issues to be discussed btween President Bush and President Musharraf tommorrow: click here
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