The Swat valley of historic Pakistan, has been under siege from radical Muslims for some time. Under the leadership of radical cleric, Mullah Fazlullah, who seeks to impose Sharia law, there have been a spate of riots, beheadings, kidnappings and suicide bombings. This is the stated pretext for the suspension of the constitution and implementation of a state of emergency.
The military authorities have been battling to suppress the situation and rescue Pakistan's moderate but religious culture from terrorists and extremists.
Unfortunately 80% of all Pakistanis are opposed to Musharraf's continuing military rule and they are tired of the incompetence of their political leaders. As a result Musharraf's hold on power is forcing even moderate Muslim's to find reluctant common ground with the radicals.
A power vacuum now exists that radicals are shrewdly exploiting to secure broad influence over Pakistan's 165 million citizens. The result is that the nation is gradually slipping into the Middle-East quagmire along with its nuclear arsenal, to provide radicals in Iran, Iraq and Pakistan with significant fire power in a future religious-military confrontation of Israel: a conflict which Russia seems all too keen to foster and exploit.
The timing for political manipulators in the mid-east chess-board, could not be better. US relationships with the international community are at an all time low, thanks to the follies of Bush, but the US is also caught up in its own preoccupations: elections, economic woes and a declining dollar. It seems that the time is ripening for an Iranian-led counter-offensive against US forces in Iraq, which would decide the future of Iraq's massive oil reserves and concomitant political power.
(c) Peter Eleazar at www.bethelstone.com
The military authorities have been battling to suppress the situation and rescue Pakistan's moderate but religious culture from terrorists and extremists.
Unfortunately 80% of all Pakistanis are opposed to Musharraf's continuing military rule and they are tired of the incompetence of their political leaders. As a result Musharraf's hold on power is forcing even moderate Muslim's to find reluctant common ground with the radicals.
A power vacuum now exists that radicals are shrewdly exploiting to secure broad influence over Pakistan's 165 million citizens. The result is that the nation is gradually slipping into the Middle-East quagmire along with its nuclear arsenal, to provide radicals in Iran, Iraq and Pakistan with significant fire power in a future religious-military confrontation of Israel: a conflict which Russia seems all too keen to foster and exploit.
The timing for political manipulators in the mid-east chess-board, could not be better. US relationships with the international community are at an all time low, thanks to the follies of Bush, but the US is also caught up in its own preoccupations: elections, economic woes and a declining dollar. It seems that the time is ripening for an Iranian-led counter-offensive against US forces in Iraq, which would decide the future of Iraq's massive oil reserves and concomitant political power.
(c) Peter Eleazar at www.bethelstone.com
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