Bush: Yesterday, "Musharraf truly believes in democracy."

Sounds like some posters on this board and Chavez.

 

It's almost over, glynch. Just over a year now, and it will be over.

 

Hey, nobody could have predicted the levees would fail either.


It's like Bush took his cues from Rush, Hannity et. al. Just make **** up, because stupid people who support you will never bother to check the veracity of your claims.

 

Bush..yesterday...

"President Bush said Tuesday that it will be hard for him to argue that Musharraf is still trying to advance democracy if he does not lift emergency rule before the elections.

"Are we happy with the emergency rule? No, we're not. Do I understand how important he is in fighting extremists and radicals? I do. And do I believe that he's going to end up getting Pakistan back on the road to democracy? I certainly hope so," Bush said in an interview with ABC television."

Actual link:

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2007-11-21-pakistan_N.htm?loc=interstitialskip

 

fair enough. that needs to stop, too.

 

I used to semi-back Chavez. I certainly don't now. He's taken dictatorial steps that have eroded any general support I once had for him, because of the good he's done.

However, I now don't support him at all, and since he had been elected over and over, he still wasn't on the same level with Musharraf.

 

Well, he is just like Musharraf and is power hungry, but at least he is elected by the vast majority of people in his country. He is actually doing more for the poor people in his country than the previous governments ever did for them, so they are voting for their self interest. They are still a deomocracy. Democracy can be good or bad or anything in between, it is just the will of the people at that time.

 

Bush More Emphatic In Backing Musharraf ... He Says Leader 'Believes in Democracy' *

* As long as Bush gets to write the definition of 'democracy'

 

He looked into his eyes and saw his soul!

 

I agree that he was elected and started out doing a lot for the poor, and working class. It was great for his nation. But he has since started seizing additional powers, which is turning him into more of a dictator.

 

Nope. Because of the crap that's gone on, we'll be living with this nightmare of an administration as long as the Republic survives.

We might be able to paper over the disaster of the policies within a generation, but the challenges the administration has put to the Constitutional order and conventions are with us forever, and waiting for others to exploit.

 

Democracy only works in societies of reasonable, rational, tolerant men.
That leaves most religious zealots out.

Musharraf and the House of Saud certainly are tyrants, but the democratic alternative of Wahhabism controling the world's oil supply and a nuclear armed Islamist state makes them the lesser of two evils.

Be careful what you wish for.

 

i would love to see the understanding that people who really think pakistan may fall to a militant religious islamist evil have of the region.

 

Come again?

 

we tolerate musharraf, who is jailing and beating up lawyers and judges, handpicking the judiciary, killing the media, jailing opposition leaders, and neglecting terrorism. obviously you must really believe that this middle finger to basic values is justified because there is a big enough risk of a some 'evil' taking over otherwise.

what basis do you have to think that pakistan might become a state ruled by 'religious zealot islamist evil' if musharraf was to allow democratic elections?

 

Regarding Chavez, please check out the film "War on Democracy" by Christopher Martin/John Pilger

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1029172/

It's a very good documentary that revealed a lot of facts that don't exist really exist else where. For example, what happened during the US-back 2002 coup was explained in detail. It was a pretty interesting event in which in about 48 hours, Chavez's status changes from president to prisoner(almost executed), then back as a president.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2002_Venezuelan_coup_d'%C3%A9tat_attempt

But in general, it's hard to keep track of Chavez is up to because nobody in in the mainstream media, of both western and Venezuela the Western, is really fond of the guy. At the very least he is not installing electronic voting without paper trails to indefinitely extend his term.

 

Oh and regarding Rove, the existing and widely-supported solution is obviously: torture. Doesn't really matter what he knows, as long as we can get him to say something

 

Considering that the Jamaat and MMA only garnered 12% of the popular vote at last count, and have historically fared poorly in elections in that region, this is more of a case of sounding cool in referencing the imminent threat of "Wahabbism."

This isn't Zia Ul Huq's symbiosis with the military. Musharraf has already demonstrated the anti-democratic despotism that those here should fear. This isn't the West Bank or southern Lebanon where the humanitarian aid vacuums allow the Islamists to gain popularity. There's really no indication that a free and fair election would result in such an outcome in Pakistan, with any understanding of the politics of the country.