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Afghanistan/South Asia

Terrorism must be confronted with force: Perv

2005-04-20

Stern words from a man who's better at uttering stern words than confronting terrorism with force...

Hey, man. Gotta respect the sash.

President Pervez Musharraf said on Tuesday that wherever there was terrorism or any violence, it had to be confronted with force. Addressing the Philippine Congress, he said in places where militants had already embraced terrorism, the use of force was inevitable and there was no doubt about that.

"Unless you can bribe them, recruit them, form alliances with them, whatever...

President Musharraf also called on Muslim and Western nations to do more to rid the world of terrorism, urging them to eliminate problems such as poverty to keep Muslims off a radical path, but recommending force to crush those already sowing terror. President Musharraf asked minority-Muslims in the Philippines, which has been struggling to deal with terror groups, to reject extremism, and backed President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's efforts to forge a peace deal with a large Muslim separatist group.

In effect allowing them to set up their own autonomous area, from which to expand their influence...

The Pakistani president called on Muslim nations "to do more to reject extremism and intolerance and promote socio-economic development that is lacking in many Muslim societies". He also urged Western nations to help settle long-standing political disputes "that have caused so much pain in the Muslim world", adding that the West should help extricate poor countries from misery. "I urge the Muslims of the Philippines to shun the path of confrontation, suppress extremism," President Musharraf said in his congressional speech, which drew loud applause from lawmakers. But he called on the government to respect Muslims' rights, tradition and culture to allow them to live in harmony in society. President Musharraf also said democracy was "firmly rooted" in Pakistan. He underscored the advance of democracy in Pakistan under his rule, citing the emergence of a vibrant local media, a parliament that checks excesses of officials and a greater role for women in governance.

Posted by:Fred

#11 LOL! Impressive Tornado.

Posted by: Shipman 2005-04-20 7:43:22 PM

#10 My bad.

"When criminals in this world appear
and break the law that they should fear
and frighten all who see or hear
The cry goes up both far and near for Underdog
Underdog."

Posted by: Tornado 2005-04-20 7:33:27 PM

#9 His comments remind me of something I've heard before. Yeah, that's the ticket.

"When criminals in this world appear
and frighten all who see or hear
The cry goes up both far and near for Underdog
Underdog."

Posted by: Tornado 2005-04-20 7:31:40 PM

#8 The first condition to remove poverty is getting rid of a religion who, betwen other things, forces people to stop working five times a day in order to proclaim that their prophet is the greatest, forces people to spend most of their hard earned money in making the Saudis richer (aka as the Hadj business) instead of investing it in productive activity, who sets schools where youngsters learn nothing marketable, only hate and being able to recite the Holy Book from memory (even when they don't understand a word of it because they don't speak Arabic) thus creating a culture with a strong emphasis on mechanic memorization instead of creative thinking. When they get rid of a religion who has been the cause for the whole Arab world having translated less books in ONE THOUSAND years than Spain in a SINGLE year, a religion who tries hard for reducing women to animal-like ignorance thus not only depriving their countries of the women's workforce but also impacting negatively on the intellectual development of their offspring (remember the part about the crucial first four years ie when the baby is primarily cared by his mother? his crass ignorant mother in hard-line muslim countries?).

When investors will say "Pakistan is full of intelligent, educated, hardworking people" instead of "Pakistan is full of fanatics looking for a fight and who dream of becoming rich not through work but through war and looting(1)" then and only then will be the poverty eardiacted in Pakistan.

(1) cf politicians who promise Indian slaves to each pakistani after India's conquest

Posted by: JFM 2005-04-20 11:05:21 AM

#7 President Musharraf also called on Muslim and Western nations to do more to rid the world of terrorism, urging them to eliminate problems such as poverty to keep Muslims off a radical path, but recommending force to crush those already sowing terror.

I am sooooo sick of the "poverty is the cause of terrorism" schtick. Look, there's more than enough money to go around over there if the gov't cronies just quit hogging it. The ME is sitting on top of the biggest black gold mine there is, and yet, there's extreme poverty and somehow it's our (the West's) fault? Give me a break. And somehow, I don't think AQ, binny, KSM, Mullah Omar, etc (top terrorists) were worried about money....it's the ideaology, stupid!

Posted by: BA 2005-04-20 10:02:41 AM

#6 I doubt the ISI would wait for the next election if Perv were removed from the scene. Thereafter the Islamists would receive 99.86% in all polls.

Posted by: Mrs. Davis 2005-04-20 10:01:24 AM

#5 The Islamists achieved their best ever electoral performance at the last elections in Pakistan: 11%

This was after all the major Islamist political parties representing the hostile sects within Sunni and Shia Islam were convinced to put aside their differences and form and alliance, one that is virtually defunct since Qazi and Fazl want to rule the show.

Posted by: Paul Moloney 2005-04-20 9:23:10 AM

#4 Phil is correct. And in any case, we will leave the Paks to the Indians if it comes to that, we'll take the Iranians and the Israelis get the Syrians and Turks if they want it. But it won't come to that and part of that is Perv's tightrope walk that pleases no one but keeps the peace and him alive. Think about Pakland after a successful asassination.

Posted by: Mrs. Davis 2005-04-20 7:56:05 AM

#3 JF, so we need Musharraf to be more democratic so we produce a situation where we can nuke them. There is no sign of you being ironic, so I have to conclude that you are one of the nuke-em-all nuts.

Read the article carefully, he is saying the right things and also claiming to do them.

Posted by: phil_b 2005-04-20 7:51:30 AM

#2 except when it comes to being democratic. He is not quite cutting the mustard, there.

Before you say it, yes he would probably lose any serious election and RoP extremists would rule the country within the year. Then we could bomb the Paks back to stone throwing, or dust the place and start over (hydrogen bombs are good for this).

They need to make the choice of going one way or the other on their own . . . sink or swim.

Posted by: Jame Retief 2005-04-20 7:42:42 AM

#1 I know you guys like to bag Musharraf but from my perspective he's doing a reasonable job in challenging circumstances.

Posted by: phil_b 2005-04-20 7:12:38 AM

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