That’s quite a heading. This is quite a day.
The unreliable Mr. Musharraf has been bounced, but good. I cannot begin to
tell you how thrilled this news is to me. To add, of course he remains the president, but he’s got stiff opposition coming at him now, which is very good news, if you ask me.
… .. The leader of the pro-Musharraf party, Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain,
a usually uncompromising politician, also said his party would be in the opposition.
The spokesman for the party, Tarik Azeem Khan, said: “We readily accept
our defeat unlike in the past when losing parties alleged rigging. We accept
that we were beaten fair and square.”The nearly complete election tally Tuesday showed the Pakistan Peoples Party
winning 80 of the 242 contested seats; the Pakistan Muslim League-N with 66;
and the pro-Musharraf party trailing with 38.Now, after one of the most dramatic electoral results in Pakistan, the United
States, which has backed Mr. Musharraf to the hilt even as a Taliban and Al
Qaeda insurgency has grown in intensity, must seek new partners in the campaign
against Islamic militants in the country and region. … ..Mr. Biden, who has criticized what he called the “Musharraf-centric”
policy of the Bush administration, said that the new head of the army was
a “rational man who understands the obligations and limitations of the
military.” .. ….… .. The leader of the Pakistan Muslim League-N, Nawaz Sharif, who was
prime minister twice in the 1990s, is now in an important position to help
forge the new government with Asif Ali Zardari, the leader of the Pakistan
Peoples Party.Mr. Zardari is the widower of Benazir Bhutto, the opposition leader who was
assassinated nearly two months ago. … ..
In Cuba, the state-run
paper announced that Castro is stepping down as dictator, as well as commander
in chief. He out lived and out ruled them all, while defying all attempts by
the U.S. to oust him. It’s a remarkable story, which was made possible on the
backs of the Cuban people. Negroponte said that the embargo would not be lifted “in the near term.”
Our policy on Cuba remains dimwitted.
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