I think the source of your facts are biased. The problem with most western write-ups is that they see everything through western lenses. Your take on the Iranian revolution above for example: the role of the military in other countries is not the same as in Europe or America. If you dont take this into account, the Iranian revolution, and what is happening in Pakistan makes no sense, to you at least. Again, this is a major problem. You keep seeing other countries through the eyes of your own. Its natural to do so, but it is dead wrong in this case. These countries were formed in ways radically different from the US, and it informs the nature of their government, dysfunctional or not. To force "authentic democracy" on Egypt just for the sake of democracy would be crazy. You might be frustrated with the progress they are making, just don't expect them to invite a decade long civil war on themselves just to plesae you.
Just in the news, the Taliban have begun withdrawing from the Buner valley (after Swat). I think they've realized they showed their cards too early. And they'll be back if Zardari doesn't get his act together.
This Islamic law is one big old can of bad. It is totally demeaning to women, the Pakastan government should take a harder line..... Parts of the world going back to the stone age is just stupid. DD
The big question in my mind is what popular support does the Taliban have throughout the rest of Pakistan? From reading through this thread and other threads it appears that the Taliban have a natural base of support among Pashtun tribes who are ethnically and religiously allied to the Taliban while also having their own economic grievances. In fighting an assymetric war this is about as best as it can get for an insurgent force but an insurgency has a much much harder time trying to take an offensive into territory where the majority of the population doesn't support them. There are only two ways that I see Pakistan falling to the Taliban. The first is the very unlikely chance that the Taliban actually capture Pakistan's nukes and blackmails the government into submission. While I question how responsible Pakistan is with their nukes I strongly doubt they are so lax as to allow the Taliban to have any shot at catching them. The second is a popular uprising where a majority of Pakistanis see the Taliban as the primary hope to fight corruption and provide stability. I don't know enough about Pakistan to say how much of a possibility that is but at the moment I don't see it. I can see the government being unstable but I have a hard time seeing how protests movements like the lawyers movement would allie themselves with the Taliban and as long as their are non-Taliban opposition it doesn't seem like the Taliban could gain enough popular support to overthrow and take over the government.
I can easily turn that around and say that your own thoughts on the subject are biased based on your own sources of information. There are other non-Western sources that see the situation in Pakistan as very troubling and possibly dire. There is a war going on in Pakistan against the Taliban and their allies which is affecting the civilian population as well as taking a toll on the Pakistan Army. Not only a toll in casualties, but a toll on their morale. Some of you might find this interesting viewing. It is decidedly not from "the Western media." <object width="560" height="340"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/2WmQTxwXrhA&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/2WmQTxwXrhA&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="560" height="340"></embed></object> You talk as if I am someone who's never ventured from the United States. In fact, I've traveled around the world and spent several weeks in South Asia, among other places. Before the revolution, I visited Tehran. I've been to Egypt. I visited Jeruselem when it was part of Jordan, and I've been to Beirut. I certainly understand that different countries are just that, different. I also know that when the people of those countries are tightly controlled by what amounts to a dictatorship, as in Egypt, with discontent simmering "under the surface," the majority of the people poor and oppressed, at some point there will be an explosion of anger that will sweep away those currently in power. We can ignore it and be "surprised" by the overthrow of the Egyptian government, with chaos and bloodshed erupting in yet another country in a strategic area of the world, one of vital interest to the US, or we can quit pretending that everything is fine and work to better the circumstances of the Egyptian people. If we assume that what is happening in Pakistan will result in, at the worst, the military taking over, we are making a grave error, in my opinion. There are other consequences that are possible, including a minority of Islamic extremists taking control of that country. Certainly, I hope that doesn't happen, but to dismiss the possibility is foolish.
Though most Pakistanis don't have support for the fundanmentalists of the Taliban, the violations of Pakistani sovereignty by high-handed Americans from thousands of miles away is generating quite a bit of sympathy which tends to strengthen them. I'm pretty sure the majority of Pakistanis don't want the incredible destruction of a civil war just to please American politicians.
