Dangerous times and desperate measures
I apologize that its taken me so long to get back to doing this blog, I get busy from time to time and unfortunately this is one of the things that goes first. I turned on the news today to see that Pervez Musharraf (of Pakistan) had suspended the Constitution and sacked the Supreme Court. The Court was expected to have ruled that Musharraf was inelligible to have run for office in the most recent elections. Musharraf is already the head of the army and came to power in October 1999 by overthrowing the democratically elected Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharif. Some have noted that today's actions amount to a second coup, effectively eliminating the checks and balances of other branches of government. The US government has strongly supported Pakistan in the past as a "ally on the war on terror". The lack of a strong condemnation of Musharraf today sends the signal that we are happy to continue assist dictators subvert democracy abroad.
Besides the obvious implications of a somewhat functioning democracy in the Middle East sliding further towards military dictatorship (and a nuclear power at that), its interesting to note the quoted reasons that he said such steps were necessary. According to the write up in the Washington Post, Musharraf cites "judicial activism" and "rising extremism" had caused him to take these measures. The foreign analyst in the piece states that this has "nothing to do with extremism" and more to do with "Musharraf's political survival". In addition to sacking the supreme court, Musharraf has instituted martial law (assisted by military forces) and quashed independant media outlets.
So what does this have to do with us you say? Well, one could speculate that the current administration's power grabs and disregard for the constitution are indicative of an incremental subversion of our own democracy. Perhaps we are only one "dirty bomb" away from much harsher measures towards our own citizens. And for those of you who think this is unthinkable, older persons will remember that part of the Iran-Contra scandal was in relation to a plan to suspend the Constitution and initiate martial law in the event of a national emergency (plan aptly named, Readiness Exercise 1984 or REX 84). Many politicos and scholars agree that the actions taken by Oliver North and Ronald Reagan (among others) during Iran Contra would constitute treason in any other country.
This was brought to light in a Miami Herald article in 1987 and was later brought up as part of Congressional hearings into Iran-Contra by Rep. Jack Brooks (D-TX). Here is a relatively recent C-SPAN of video of Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-OR) questioning the Bush/Cheney administration and their classified plan for the continuity of government (which is also being kept hidden from congress). Is it possible that the same thing thats happening in Pakistan could happen here in the US? Well, ten years ago if you told me two airliners would crash into the world trade center, I would have laughed in your face. Lets just say nowadays, I'm not very sure. These are dangerous times we are living in.
Besides the obvious implications of a somewhat functioning democracy in the Middle East sliding further towards military dictatorship (and a nuclear power at that), its interesting to note the quoted reasons that he said such steps were necessary. According to the write up in the Washington Post, Musharraf cites "judicial activism" and "rising extremism" had caused him to take these measures. The foreign analyst in the piece states that this has "nothing to do with extremism" and more to do with "Musharraf's political survival". In addition to sacking the supreme court, Musharraf has instituted martial law (assisted by military forces) and quashed independant media outlets.
So what does this have to do with us you say? Well, one could speculate that the current administration's power grabs and disregard for the constitution are indicative of an incremental subversion of our own democracy. Perhaps we are only one "dirty bomb" away from much harsher measures towards our own citizens. And for those of you who think this is unthinkable, older persons will remember that part of the Iran-Contra scandal was in relation to a plan to suspend the Constitution and initiate martial law in the event of a national emergency (plan aptly named, Readiness Exercise 1984 or REX 84). Many politicos and scholars agree that the actions taken by Oliver North and Ronald Reagan (among others) during Iran Contra would constitute treason in any other country.
This was brought to light in a Miami Herald article in 1987 and was later brought up as part of Congressional hearings into Iran-Contra by Rep. Jack Brooks (D-TX). Here is a relatively recent C-SPAN of video of Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-OR) questioning the Bush/Cheney administration and their classified plan for the continuity of government (which is also being kept hidden from congress). Is it possible that the same thing thats happening in Pakistan could happen here in the US? Well, ten years ago if you told me two airliners would crash into the world trade center, I would have laughed in your face. Lets just say nowadays, I'm not very sure. These are dangerous times we are living in.