Pervez Musharraf and his dictatorship suffered a widescale political defeat in the elections in Pakistan, and with the coalescence of a coalition gaining power set on ousting the corrupt dictator and perhaps even arresting him to try him for various crimes against Pakistan, an eerie and alarming scenario is beginning to develop similar to what happened with and after the fall of Shah Reza Pahlavi in Iran in 1979. Voices of extremism and insanity gained power in Iran and seized the American Embassy in Tehran, holding hundreds of Americans hostage for well over a year, crippling an American Presidency, rendering the American economy stagnant and impotent, and sweeping in a tidal change with the 1980 elections in American political leadership and culture that continues largely and more so to date. One can envision a similar like scenario eventuating with Pakistan and Musharraf. George Bush and the current administration are hardcore friends of his and will take any and all steps to preserve his safety and keep him for harm, humilation, and worse. A Musharraff out of Pakistan and in exile in the US or elsewhere free from repercussions for his crimes, treachery and violence in Pakistan could result in the sudden rise of an extremist anti-American government that could follow a stunningly similar route as what happened in Iran almost three decades ago. With American military forces tied down in Iraq and a weakened directionless lame duck presidency currently in place in the United States, events could happen quickly and in ways that become of enormous concern throughout South Asia, the Middle East, and globally, perhaps even to the extent of imperilment. One critical significant difference of the highest paramount as compared to 1979: Pakistan has nuclear weapons. Americans, other peoples of the West, and neighbors of Pakistan have to be confident a strategy is in place to prevent those weapons from getting into the hands of irrational individuals hellbent on using them in some way. 2008 may have greater challenges and tests than most of us are aware of.*****
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