The Voice Of Realism

Stanley Kurtz fails to cheer me up:

The people of Pakistan are not with us. The notion that a genuinely liberal democracy was imminent in Pakistan, and that the Bhutto assassination somehow cut it short, is not credible. Illiberal democracy in a fundamentally illiberal nation is not the answer. Imperfect as it is–and it is very imperfect–Pakistan’s military is the only thing that stands between the current instability and total chaos. There is a serious problem here, and faux democracy is not the solution. (Genuinely liberal democracy isn’t even an option.) Nawaz Sharif, the most Islamist-friendly mainstream politician in the country is not the solution either.

(Photo: The body of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto is carried out of Rawalpindi General Hospital on December 27, 2007 in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. By Warrick Page/Getty Images.)