Pervez Musharraf

The president of Pakistan, Pervez Musharraf, has been a name we have heard here for several years now. After 9/11, Musharraf pledged support for the US in the battle with terrorism, and specifically against the Taliban in Afghanistan. Recently, we have heard his name pop up with more frequency. He was here for the UN conference and also spent some time promoting his new book: In the Line of Fire. The majority of the rhetoric surrounding Musharraf has always been positive, and as this article notes, perhaps too positive for a man who seized control of his government in a coup and where there are questions about how "democratic" the elections have been to secure his control in the years since, but on the whole he has been seen to be a strong ally. The past week, I've been reading articles here and there relating to Musharraf, and the interesting idea I've stumbled across is that the seeming contradictions in Musharraf are really contradictions in many of the Muslim countries as a whole. What we see is a paradox of ideas: that of traditional Muslim ideology and values, and the ideology and values of the West that are being spread, directly and indirectly through them.

With all of the positive rhetoric we have heard, I always assumed Musharraf was pretty solid in our court. I suppose this was naive optimism, but during an interview with the president on The Daily Show, the fact that we are dealing with a man, running a nuclear country that could very easily change his mind about his support became clear. I'm not saying he's going to go against us, but the recent controversy surrounding whether former deputy Secretary of State, Richard Armitage, told a key official in Pakistan after 9/11 that they had better support us or else we would bomb them into the stone age has shown some cracks of division. Armitage has claimed this statement was false, and I'm sure he would never use the phrase "bomb into the stone age", but I also don't doubt that he was surely a bit on the firm side in the conversation, and it does make you wonder how much support is due to goodwill and how much is due to force. At any rate, the interview is an interesting one to watch, so for your convenience see below:



And so the paradox I mention shown in Musharraf is really a reflection of the country he leads. My friend Christina was in Pakistan last April and two posts on her blog really capture this separateness, this paradox of Middle Eastern and Western ideas, very well. The first is about Islamabad, which is a thoroughly modern and westernized city. The second is about the trip taken to the earthquake zone. The picture with the entry says quite a bit by itself.

All of this is not to question our alliance with Musharraf and Pakistan, but to realize that situations are usually more complicated than they appear on the surface. Having an understanding of a culture like Pakistan's is essential to understanding the alliance, and the entire global situation.