Monday, November 05, 2007

U.S. likely to continue support to Musharraf

Even though the U.S. has indefinitely canceled a round of defence cooperation talks due to the coup, I think it's likely that it will continue to support Musharraf, at least in terms of military aid (which is controlled by the Pentagon, not the State Department). And statements from various officials suggest that other than token punitive measures, the U.S. is not going to use its aid as leverage against Musharraf.

So I think what we need, in addition to continued protests at embassies worldwide, is a special push from Pakistanis in the U.S. to pressure the U.S. government to make aid to Pakistan contingent on free and fair elections in January as scheduled (the government has "postponed" them for a year, after imposition of martial law). I'm not sure how this campaign will work but it's something to start thinking about.

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