The editors of the New York Times, that "newspaper of record" that brought us the massive fear-mongering disinformation campaign about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, has following Bhutto's assassination editorialized that the Bush administration needs to do something about Pakistan. It has, the editors declare, the "option of using American prestige and resources to fortify Pakistan's badly battered democratic institutions. . . must now call for new rules to assure a truly democratic vote"---as though the unelected U.S. president has any business telling other countries how to conduct fair elections. "The United States cannot afford to have Pakistan unravel any further American policy must now be directed at building a strong democracy in Pakistan." Is not the subtext here that if Musharraf disappoints the administration, he should lose aid, and thus have less ability to fight the bourgeoning Islamist forces in his country, producing more unraveling, thus providing a pretext for U.S. military action?
In a perhaps not unrelated development, neocon and chief Iraq War propagandist Bill Kristol has been hired by the New York Times as a columnist in 2008. He told Fox News last July, "I think the president's going to have to take military action there over [in Pakistan] in the next few weeks or months. Bush has to disrupt that [al-Qaeda] sanctuary. I think, frankly, we won't even tell Musharraf. We'll do what we have to do in Western Pakistan and Musharraf can say, 'Hey, they didn't tell me.'" Notice how he leaves the Pakistani people and their reaction to such "action"---military aggression against a sovereign state--- entirely out of the picture.
This is madness compounding madness, offered as respectable commentary in the mainstream press.
Gary Leupp is Professor of History at Tufts University, and Adjunct Professor of Comparativhttp://
