Bush Administration follies: How to support Musharraf while pretending to admonish him?

[babylonsister]

U.S. Strategy for Pakistan Looks More Fragile

By HELENE COOPER
Published: November 10, 2007

WASHINGTON, Nov. 9 — In pushing for the deal that took Benazir Bhutto back to Pakistan, the Bush administration hoped to build a broader base of support that might help Gen. Pervez Musharraf stay in power.

But General Musharraf’s sweeping crackdown over the last week has raised questions about that strategy, not least when he sent thousands of police officers on Friday morning to prevent Ms. Bhutto from leading a protest rally against his imposition of de facto martial law.

The images coming out of Pakistan — of police forces blanketing the site of a planned rally by Ms. Bhutto, the opposition leader, and then barricading her inside her residence — were hardly consistent with the kind of cooperation the United States promoted.

Bush administration officials and Pakistani experts say they still believe that a power-sharing agreement between Ms. Bhutto and the general can survive. “We hope we’re seeing a little bit of political theater here,” a senior State Department official said.

By that the official meant Ms. Bhutto’s insistence on holding a rally, General Musharraf’s decision to barricade her in her house, and the subsequent speech by Ms. Bhutto to the nation that was broadcast on official Pakistani television.

more...

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/10/world/asia/10policy.html