Reply #6: Well, Leavenworth is a pretty good school.

[bemildred]

Or at least it was when I knew about it, which has been a while now.

But power changes people, some of them anyway. I've read elsewhere various speculations about what he would do when he got command, but that is all it was, speculation. Like Putin, nobody knows much about him except that he has been a good soldier up to now.

But the other question is how long will the other interested parties be satisfied to leave Musharraf in charge? That would seem to depend a good deal on how satisfied they are with whatever sort of deal is made, and how long they remain satisfied. I would expect attempts to shuffle him off into retirement at some early date, along the lines you suggest, perhaps.