the Kolkata Libertarian thinks Musharraf is not the rational proto-democrat we're counting on.

I sent this:

I hope you're wrong about him. I can't say. But, at least he's rational enough to know that he wasn't going to get anywhere siding with bin Laden against us. He must also know that a nuclear war isn't going to put a star by his name in Pakistan's history.

He is riding a tiger, and he knows it. I have to wish him well and pray for him. But if it goes south, it will be the fault of the Pakistani peoples, not Musharraf. Like Muslims everywhere, they need to learn that their religious solidarity cannot include terrorists. If they don't police their own societies, the rest of the world will do it for them with great suffering and destruction for all concerned. They need to learn the same lesson as the Germans and Japanese in WWII, hopefully before they have to learn it in the same way.