Pakistan's Musharraf loses... do the terrorists win?

The Associated Press

Pervez Musharraf, a U.S. ally in the war on terrorism, is out.

Featured Topic | Posted 39 weeks 3 days ago

Pakistan's Musharraf loses... do the terrorists win?

Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf's party took a thumping at the polls Tuesday, while the party of the slain ex-Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto won a plurality of votes. The really good news: Most Islamist political parties were trounced, too.

The result: Musharraf is out, and a new "moderate" coalition government will likely form. But how just "moderate" is the new government going to be? Will it be a useful American ally in the war against al-Qaeda and the Taliban? And what will Pakistan's army do?

Ben likes: Pakistan after Musharraf

John Hinderaker/Powerline

No matter who is president of Pakistan, the question of what to do about al Qaeda and other extremist groups will remain. Al Qaeda made repeated, but unsuccessful, attempts to murder President Musharraf. It succeeded in murdering Benazir Bhutto. One hopes that her party will be at least as committed to defeating the terrorists as was Musharraf.

Joel likes: Pakistan elections

The Daily Dish

When your policy involves relying exclusively on one increasingly unpopular leader, and that leader is demolished in an election, it tends to open "a host of new challenges." All the more so since by aligning ourselves so closely with Musharraf, we did real damage to our own reputation in Pakistan.

One interesting note: as far as I can tell, the Pakistani religious parties seem to have done very, very badly. I hope this means that we won't hear any more hyperventilating about the possibility that jihadis could sweep to power in Pakistan at any minute if we don't keep supporting dictators. The religious parties have never been very popular in Pakistan. They seem to be even less popular now.