You're currently reading an archived version of Jim Hightower's work.
The latest (and greatest?) observations from Jim Hightower are only now available at our Substack website. Join us there!
If the Bush-Cheney Regime is so committed to its stated ideals of spreading western-style democracy throughout the Islamic world, why is George W hugging up and propping up the anti-democratic, military dictatorship of Gen. Pervez Musharraf in Pakistan?
The Bushites have already dumped some ten billion of our tax dollars into Gen. Musharraf’s military in the past five years, claiming that the money is needed so his troops can battle the terrorist forces of al Qaeda and the repressive tribal leaders of Pakistan’s Taliban. But Musharraf has shown no stomach for going after these villains.
Enjoying Hightower's work? Join us over at our new home on Substack:
Indeed, when the general recently sought to hang onto political power by imposing martial law on his country, it was not leaders of the Taliban or al Qaeda he attacked and jailed, but the judges, lawyers, teachers, artists, and democracy activists of Pakistan. Yet Bush did no more than meekly cluck his tongue at such despotism, and he has kept your and my tax dollars flowing to Musharraf’s repressive military.
What’s going on? Bush’s coziness with the dictator has nothing to do with democracy and everything to do with fuel for George W’s failing war in neighboring Afghanistan. About 80 percent of the U.S. military’s fuel supplies in that country comes from five refineries in Pakistan – and the price of keeping those fuel lines open is to keep Musharraf’s dictatorship in power next door.
Ironically, our tax dollars are underwriting not just a military machine, but also an economic machine, for the general’s armed forces have become a hugely profitable conglomerate. As a Pakistani air force veteran points out, the military is “the nation’s pre-eminent real estate dealer, it dominates the breakfast-cereal market, [and] it runs banks and bakeries.”
Wow – militarism and corporatism all in one entity. No wonder Bush loves Musharraf!
“Pakistan’s General Anarchy,” The New York Times, November 7, 2007
“America’s Pakistan problem,” Austin American Statesman, November 8, 2007