After Bhutto's death, US papers call for new Pakistan policy
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WASHINGTON (AFP) - Leading US newspapers on Friday urged the Bush administration to reassess its backing of Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and support democracy following the assassination of Benazir Bhutto.
"American policy must now be directed at building a strong democracy in Pakistan that has the respect and the support of its own citizens and the will and the means to fight Al-Qaeda and the Taliban," The New York Times said in an editorial.
"The days of Washington mortgaging its interests there to one or two individuals must finally come to an end," it said.
The Washington Post echoed the view, saying that "elections -- held on January 8 or soon afterward -- and a restored democracy remain the best way for the centrist majority in Pakistan to rally against the forces of extremism that yesterday realized a great, though despicable, victory."
In a separate article, The Post said Bhutto's return to Pakistan from exile last October was the result of more than a year of US-led secret negotiations undertaken when it became clear to Washington that "the heir to Pakistan's most powerful political dynasty was the only one who could bail out Washington's key ally in the battle against terrorism."
Playing key roles in these talks, according to The Post, were Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher who, beginning in 2006, often traveled to Islamabad to speak with Musharraf and with Bhutto at her homes in London and Dubai, as well as with then-US Ambassador to the United Nations Zalmay Khalilzad.
Khalilzad, the report said, had long been skeptical about Musharraf and disagreed with then-Secretary of State Colin Powell over whether the Pakistani president was being helpful in the fight against the Taliban.
The efforts culminated last September, when Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte made a trip to Islamabad, The Post said.
"He basically delivered a message to Musharraf that we would stand by him, but he needed a democratic facade on the government, and we thought Benazir was the right choice for that face," the paper quoted Bruce Riedel, a former CIA officer and employee of the National Security Council, as saying.
USA Today argued in an editorial that the US hope was that Bhutto could recapture the job after parliamentary elections in January and strengthen democratic institutions, helping to keep Pakistan's nuclear weapons away from its large radicalized Islamic population.
"That strategy was left in ruins Thursday by Bhutto's tragic assassination," USA Today pointed out. "But if Bhutto's death is to have any positive impact, Pakistanis will grasp the danger, and Musharraf and other political leaders will move toward strengthening democratic institutions. The only US option is to push, despite limited levers, for that outcome."
The Philadelphia Inquirer says that with Bhutto gone, "the Bush administration finds itself even less able to divorce itself from Musharraf" and that the dangers looming for the United States were "tremendous."
"Pakistan, after all, has nuclear arms," writes The Inquirer. "Imagine what could become of those weapons should Pakistan collapse into the type of violence and chaos that Iraq experienced after Saddam Hussein's fall. Sadly, it is in large measure due to President Bush's decision to make Iraq our military's primary focus after 9/11 that the Afghanistan/Pakistan situation has become so tenuous."
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