Pakistan: The Weakest Link
By George Thomas
CBN News Senior Reporter
December 28, 2007
CBNNews.com - As Pakistan and the world mourn the loss of Bhutto, Washington is sure to have new doubts about one of its most crucial partners in the war on terrorism. Just how determined is Pakistan and its President Pervez Musharraf to fighting international terrorism?
In February 2004, Benazir Bhutto told CBN News that she feared Pakistan was America's weakest link in the fight against the Islamists.
In an interview with senior reporter George Thomas, she warned that the United States was making a big mistake in putting all their eggs in Musharraf's basket.
Click play as CBN News takes a closer look at Musharraf: America's Friend or Foe?
Musharraf: America's Friend or Foe?
By George Thomas
CBN News Senior Reporter
February 2004
CBNNews.com - To call Pakistan one of the most dangerous Muslim countries in the world is putting it mildly.
"This is a failing society; it is just disintegrating in front of our eyes," says author David Frum.
A society that Pakistani journalist Hussain Haqqani believers is dangling between order and chaos.
"With one-third of its population living below the poverty line, at least," Haqqani said.
Frum adds that, "It's like a shattered ruin of a government with people all over the place cutting their own corrupt deals and the ability of the Pakistani president to even control his own government, let alone his own country, is very limited."
Add to this, a country brisling with radical Islamists and terrorists.
"By President Musharraf's own reckoning there are roughly one-percent of his 150 million people who are extremists which means there are one-point-five million extremists running around that country," author and journalist Arnaud de Borchgrave said.
And this has American officials very concerned. A senior U.S. military commander in the region recently warned that Pakistani extremists posed a long-term threat to American security.
"And in the disintegration of the society, a lot of really evil people are getting opportunities to do real harm," author Frum said.
Such as Pakistan's bomb maker who several years ago confessed to peddling nuclear technology to rogue states.
"So at worse, Pakistan comes across as being a proliferator of nuclear weapons technology and at best it comes across as a nation where people have a very laxcidasical attitude towards such transfer of technology," Haqqani said.
Either way, it raises a critical question: Is Pakistan today the weakest link in America's War on Terrorism?
"This is the disturbing issue that is raised," former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto said.
No one knows the complexities of US-Pakistan relations better than Bhutto. Bhutto was Pakistan's former Prime Minister and the first woman prime minister of a Muslim nation.
In a CBN News interview conducted with her in February 2004, she said Musharraf has little incentive to stop either the proliferation of nuclear weapons or the Taliban and al-Qaeda forces from regrouping in Pakistan.
"General Musharraf is America's chief ally in the region but one needs to ask whether he has been able to govern Pakistan in a manner that can ensure stability and security in the region and the larger world community," Bhutto said.
The General was under heavy U.S. pressure after 9-11 to abandon his strong support of the Taliban. Since then, the Pakistan government has rounded up more than 500 Al-Qaeda suspects and turned them over to the United States.
Yet, elements within Pakistan's intelligence service and army continue to under-write terrorism. And often with the tacit backing of Islamabad.
"The U.S. would be making a big mistake to put all their eggs in General Musharraf's basket," Bhutto warned.
But that assumes Washington has another alternative to Musharraf. It doesn't.
"General Musharraf has been able to win favor with Washington persuading Americans that he is better than any other alternative that they can think of," Haqqani said.
CBN News asked Bhutto if she thought that Musharraf was a dictator or a democrat.
"Musharraf is a dictator," she said. "He doesn't believe in democracy, he believes in dictatorship, he believes in one man rule and he wants to crush all debate and dissent in the country."
True, he has outlawed a bunch of terrorist groups-- only to have them operate under different names.
M.J. Akbar is the author of several books on Pakistan's political culture.
"A rose by any other name will smell as sweet, a terrorist organization by any other name would stink as much," Akbar said.
And now remnants of the Taliban and Al Qaeda are using Pakistan as a base for strikes against American and coalition forces in Afghanistan.
Musharraf's promise to drive extremism from Pakistan's strict Islamic schools remains unfulfilled.
Thousands of children are still learning to hate at an early age. Jawed Naqvi writes for one of Pakistan's largest newspapers.
"It is blind faith-- that this is what the Koran says and they have to accept the axioms," Naqvi said. "They are taught not only how to recite the Koran by heart but also how to hate America."
And if the Pakistanis are our allies, why has Musharraf allowed anti-American Islamists to impose Taliban-like laws in parts of his country?
"General Musharraf, by virtue of his tussle of power with democratic forces of the country, is either inadvertently or deliberately fanning the politics of fanaticism," Bhutto warned.
And, potentially the Talibanization of Pakistan. Across his country, pro al-Qaeda and pro-Taliban forces have managed to infiltrate many levels of Pakistan's society.
"And yet all of this has been allowed to pass simply because the US need for cooperation in apprehending Osama Bin Laden and Al Qaeda figures outweighs the promotion of democracy at home in the eyes of the Bush administration," Haqqani said.
But for the moment, Musharraf is betting that because Washington is busy managing Iraq and fighting the war against terrorism that the Bush White House doesn't have the time to concentrate on democracy in Pakistan.
"Then I fear for the consequences because I have seen that democracies don't support terrorism, but at the same time I have seen that it is dictatorships that spawn extremists, that spawn fundamentalism, and Pakistan is a case in point," Bhutto said.
All this has left many wondering whether Pakistan is America's friend or foe.
"This is the most difficult question to answer," Haqqani said. "I think Pakistan falls into a third category: the category of Saudi Arabia, the category of certain other states. Countries which are too close to the US to be classified as foes but at the same time having too many disturbing signs for the US to really consider as friends."
Musharaff's dilemma now is how to keep his position as a trusted U.S. ally while trying to hold back the raging forces of orthodox Islam.
A position that's becoming increasingly dangerous.
"I don't think there is any insurance company in the world that will sell President Musharraf a life insurance policy," author Frum said.
He has survived not only two recent assassination attempts but also a total of eight assassination plots.
More reasons why many are urging Washington to link its military and economic assistance to Pakistan to the holding of free and fair elections. Only then will the world find a much more secure and stable Pakistan.
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