Quote Originally Posted by MCMasterChef View Post
Can I ask, do you mean end our ties with Pakistan, or with the Musharaff regime?

In the light of the widespread public protests against his dismissal of the former Chief Justice Chaudry there, it's debatable how much longer he'll be able to cling to power; and while Musharaff finds the specter of Islamist takeover useful to rationalize his continued value to the States, I believe the Islamist parties last polled somewhere around 12%.

While Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif's parties have no shortage of blemishes in their past themselves, I think writers like Stephen Cohen (The Idea of Pakistan) and Hussain Haqqani (Pakistan Between Mosque and Military) make a good case that some of Pakistan's greatest problems can be traced to the military's regular usurpations of the democratic process, more than the demagogues like Zia Jr — while not something to be ignored, he and those like him are symptoms of a larger problem.
I actually meant Pakistan. I think any alternative regime there is going to be even worse than the current one. The bottom line is that the perceptions and objectives of the Pakistani public and elite are so diverse from our own that I don't see grounds for cooperation.

It's harsh, but I think all we can do is downgrade ties, control Pakistani immigration to the United States, and be prepared to take out or control their nuclear weapons if necessary.