Pakistan

So much for the "forward strategy of freedom" proclaimed by President Bush in 2003 to spread democracy throughout the greater Middle East and elsewhere":

Gen Musharraf appears to have calculated that the threat of western ire was less immediate than the political challenge to his authority within the country. The head of the US Central Command, Admiral William Fallon, was in Pakistan on Friday, reportedly to warn him not to impose the emergency, but the declaration was made while the admiral was still in town.

The British government seems to have been forewarned Musharraf was going to act, and that he "satisfied" our objections by saying elections were still to be held on time. Of course, now, elections are being postponed, for at least a year for perhaps two years, according to Benazir Bhutto.

It's a bit transparent, really. Musharraf is using the emergency decree to arrest judges, lawyers, opposition politicians, and he sends 200 police with assault rifles to arrest 50 people at the offices of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan. If it's about jihadi instability, why is he cracking down on the democratic opposition?

Bronwen Maddox, in the Times:

What Musharraf means by “a state of emergency” is still unclear. It looks like martial law, with soldiers in control of the main institutions. The implication is that he does not intend to recognise the constraints of the courts of Constitution ... If the turmoil continues, all kinds of would-be leaders may reckon that their time has come. Musharraf has put great faith in the loyalty of Kiyani, the recent head of the ISI intelligence agency, making him his heir-apparent as head of the Army. But it would be entirely consistent with Pakistan’s past if a former loyalist, in an army uniform, now thought he could do a better job.