Pakistan’s military dictator, President Pervez Musharraf has resigned to avoid impeachment. Now we will see a contest between his equally unsavory kleptocratic rivals. Let us hope that this criminal is not sheltered in the United States.
The Bush administration has squandered $10 billion dollars that rightfully belonged to the American taxpayers since 2001 on the Musharraf regime giving the lie to the pious phrases emanating from the administration about democracy and the rule of law.
But the Democrats share the same mistaken notions of foreign policy. Like their domestic economic planning scheme they call industrial policy, the Democrats share the illusion that the United States has the capacity, let alone the right, to pick winners in other countries. Political calculation is an art, not a science.
Obama and McCain suffer equally like the Bush administration from the vain hope that Pakistani governments will deal with the Taliban, both Afghani and homegrown, according to our needs and desires. Experience has shown this to be false.
I will say one good thing about Musharraf. Despite some tensions, relations seem never better between Pakistan and India.
What should be American policy towards Pakistan? Free trade, an end to both foreign aid and intervention in general. The US government should stop wreaking havoc with its protectionist hypocrisy and drug war. Certainly, bellicose remarks like Obama’s have no place.
There is an alternative in this year’s presidential election. Former Congressman Bob Barr of Georgia is the Libertarian Party www.lp.org presidential candidate is advocating a constitutional, non-interventionist foreign policy that respects the rule of law at home and abroad. I am pleased to be a presidential elector for Barr in New York. (His campaign can be reached at www.bobbarr2008.com).
As for Pakistan, it should embrace the libertarian policies of individual liberty, free markets and personal responsibility. The International Society for Individual Liberty is working to spread libertarianism worldwide. www.isil.org.
One gangster departs the scene, who will replace him. Some day a new dawn may arise in Pakistan and America with a better alternative. -30-
See also from November 2007: https://www.groundreport.com/World/Musharraf-Out-Of-Uniform-Makes-No-Real-Difference
(About the author: Richard Cooper is the export/import manager of a Long Island, NY manufacturer. He is a Life member of ISIL and was Chair of the Libertarian Party of New York. www.ny.lp.org. He was active in the Ron Paul campaign.)
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