American Puppet Power in Pakistan – Color of Law

The raw power grab in Pakistan, in which General Pervez Musharraf has imposed a state of emergency, suspended the Supreme Court and the provincial courts, and silenced private-owned media, tells us far more about the United States than Pakistan.

Pakistani citizens are paying the price for the misguided policies of Washington decision makers. The U.S. government stands idly by because it does not want to offend one of its primary allies in this war on terror, viewed by many as a war on civil liberties here at home and a war on international human rights law and the Muslim world. Besides, America, or rather, Bush & Co., the inventor of the preventive war doctrine, believes in cracking down, starting wars and stripping rights, based on what they think people might do in the future. War is perpetual, and constitutional guarantees stand in the way of this war, in their view. I will discuss this doctrine at greater length in an upcoming commentary, in which I will review the new book by David Cole and Jules Lobel, Less Safe, Less Free: Why America Is Losing the War on Terror.

So, which governments are dictatorial? Cuba? Cuba is deemed a dictatorship because it is a small island nation with a leader who, for decades, has defied the behemoth 90 miles to the north. Is China a dictatorship in the eyes of America? No, because although it represses its people and sells lead toys for profit, China owns America’s debt and there is too much money at stake. Burma is owned and operated by a brutal, insular, and ignorant military junta that will summarily round up and kill thousands of pro-democracy protestors in order to maintain power. But we can’t make too much of a fuss about it, because oil companies such as Chevron (who once named an oil tanker after Condoleezza Rice) are doing business there and need to get paid.