[gdani]

Like I said though, if you have a better idea...

Time will tell whether propping up yet another military dictator is a good idea.

I have a feeling it will come back to bite us just like Saddam, Bin Laden, Arafat, Iran-Contra, Noriega, what's-his-name in Haiti, etc, etc.

[Prodigal Son]

Oh it probably will. But again, not doing so would bite a lot worse. You can only work with the factors that you know. It is impossible to plot all future permutations or to go and check what would've happened if we had not done this or that. What if we could go back and look and see that if we had not propped up Saddam things would've been worse? As Rummy is fond of saying- "The future is not knowable". Of course, one day we'll have the luxury of hindsight and we'll all sit around and wonder why we didn't do this or that. Unfortunately, we must make our decisions in real time with no hindsight luxury to guide us.

The known factors here are- Musharraf, who is not a raving fundamentalist is in control of most of Pakistan. He has nukes. Also in Pakistan and in an area that Musharraf does not control are the Taliban, al Qaeda (and bin Laden presumedly) and a population that is largely sympathetic to both and hostile towards Musharraf. The Taliban would like to gain power in Pakistan. Al Qaeda would like to get the nukes. Standing in their way is Musharraf.

These are the known factors. It's what we have to work with now. Maybe in 20 years it'll look different- but now it's the hand we've been dealt and that we're having to play.