In Pakistan, the lawyers' movement for the restoration of the judiciary has finally had enough of Asif Ali Zardari's endless dipsy-doodle.For the past eight months, since the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, his former wife and the former leader of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP), Zardari has been pretending to support Pakistan's so-called "transition to democracy".
But he's been working against it at the same time, using the support from the other opposition parties to oust Prevez Musharraf, but planning to succeed Musharraf himself, and also planning to retain all the extra-legal powers Musharraf has accumulated.
There's no doubt that all this connivance has suited Zardari's American backers, who have been strangely silent since it became clear that Musharraf's days as President were numbered.But then again, that depends on what you mean by "silent".
The "militants" in the mountains have stepped up their suicide bombing campaign, just like they always do when the Americans want to put pressure on the Pakistani government.
In recent days they have attacked a police station, the home of a politician, and a defense-industrial complex in the heart of the national capital.
The moves and counter-moves in the most recent campaign seem to have been carefully orchestrated, and the motives are transparent as ever.
It suits America to have as many wars going simultaneously as possible, especially if Americans don't have to fight them all.
It suits America to have a weapon to use against whatever Pakistani government emerges from the upcoming Presidential election.The majority of the violence has been blamed on Baitullah Mehsud, who is called the leader of the Taliban in Pakistan.
In recent days details have emerged indicating that Baitullah Mehsud is probably a CIA asset, which would hardly be surprising, considering his amazing immunity from reprisals.
It's been reported that the intelligence services cannot crack Baitullah Mehsud's communications, the encryption is so advanced.
It's also been reported that he gets advance notice of Pakistani troop movements from an unidentified foreign government, and that US forces have mysteriously refused to attack him, despite knowing exactly where he was.
I'm normally reluctant to make predictions, but it's easy to see that the violence will continue until the next government is installed -- whoever that may be -- and declares undying loyalty to the US and the GWOT and an unflagging determination to root out the extremists.Meanwhile, the root cause of the terrorism -- Pakistan's support for the US and the GWOT, especially as applied against Afghanistan -- will remain topic non grata. And the contradiction will sit there, naked in full view and unmentioned in any of the mainstream media.
In any case ... following Nawaz Sharif's announcement earlier this week that the PML-N has left the governing coalition, and that PML-N will not support Zardari's candidacy for President but instead will run a candidate of their own, Pakistan's lawyers for democracy have taken to the streets of many cities simultaneously.
And as you can see in these fabulous photos from Reuters, they're even tearing down posters of Zardari.
They haven't linked him and his takeover of the PPP with his American backers yet, at least not in public.
Just wait.
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