Anywhere but Denver

We are addressing Pakistan in two successive entries for the simple reason that we feel the condition in a nation on Afghanistan's border—a nation which has long been important to the stability of the region and the progress of the war to the west—should be followed up on. Also, the Democratic National Convention means that our only two television news options are: a) turn on any major news station/website and be assaulted by hope/change/love/peace; or b) turn on the local news and be captivated by the plight of local kudzu farmers. Since both carry the threat of producing massive internal bleeding, we have opted to steer clear of the DNC entirely and discuss an issue which is actually significant.

Unfortunately, the Pakistanis are being reminded that civilian government does not necessarily mean happiness, especially when your last system of government was not a democracy. Relative stability is easy with a ruler like Musharraf in power, but easy stability comes at a price – a price deemed unacceptable by the Pakistanis, leading to the August 18th resignation. Now, the people of Pakistan are going to have to figure out very quickly how to address the rapidly expanding violence in the country and the flow of insurgents into Afghanistan.
In terms of US interests, little has occurred to indicate that Islamabad is capable of holding the country together (much less worrying about Afghanistan) as the New York Times points out:
...doubts are growing among American officials over the level of cooperation they can expect from the new army chief, Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, a former head of intelligence who took over the post from Mr. Musharraf last November.
After glowing initial reviews by the Americans, General Kayani has appeared less interested in how to deal with the Taliban than with the sagging morale of his undertrained, underequipped troops.
“In my view they won’t do aggressive counterinsurgency because they can’t,” said Christine Fair, senior political scientist at the RAND Corporation, of the Pakistani Army.
Kayani has been meeting with Admiral Michael Mullen, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, and there are hints of progress. The trouble is, the current US-Pakistan dialogue may change once Pakistan's new president is elected – as the Pakistani army chief has said himself, it is now the army's job to serve the civilian government, and Pakistan's competence against the Taliban only goes so far as the competence of its next president, who will be elected on September 6. Although the current Pakistan Peoples Party co-chairman, Asif Ali Zardari, was initially seen as a likely candidate, an August 29 article in The Australian suggests he may withdraw from the race, opening a window for his sister, Faryal Talpur (see previous entry).