Trouble in Puppet-dise

From CNN:

Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf ripped the president of neighboring Afghanistan on Sunday, telling CNN that Hamid Karzai is "totally oblivious of what is happening in his own country."

Hmmm...why does that sound familiar?





Anyway...

Musharraf was furious over an Associated Press report that Karzai had given Pakistan intelligence suggesting that former Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar and his associates are hiding in Pakistan.

The report also said Afghanistan gave Pakistan information about locations of alleged terrorist training camps along the border between the two nations.

"I am really surprised and shocked why they have disclosed this to the media," Musharraf told CNN.

"We've already gone through it, this list. Two-thirds of it is months old, and it is outdated, and there is nothing," he said. "What there was, the telephone numbers that they are talking of, two-thirds of them are dead numbers, and even the CIA knows about it, because we are sharing all this information with them.

"Even the CIA knows?" That's a low blow, Mushie.

Both Pakistan and Afghanistan have said they are committed to tracking down the wanted individuals and assisting the United States in what the Bush administration has called the war on terrorism.

I love that CNN is now treating the "war on terror" as the sham that it is.

Musharraf told CNN he helped in Afghanistan's election process, and "if it was not for Pakistan, maybe [Karzai] and his election would not have taken place smoothly."

So Karzai owes his election to the dictator Musharraf, Bush owes his to Osama, and Ahmadinejad and Hamas probably owe their electoral success to Bush. Ain't democracy grand?

Musharraf, an army general who assumed power during a bloodless coup in 1999, gave a staunch defense of democratic reforms during Bush's visit Saturday, saying "sustainable democracy" has been introduced.

He makes "sustainable" sound so dirty. I think he means democracy which sustains him in power.

Bush said part of his visit's purpose was to determine whether Musharraf "is as committed as he has been in the past to bringing these terrorists to justice -- and he is."

That is, pretending to do something while actually doing nothing--something W can certainly relate to.

Bush said Pakistan won't receive U.S. help for its civilian nuclear power program as India did, saying that he had explained to Musharraf "that Pakistan and India are different countries with different needs and different histories."

Thanks for explaining that to him, George. W is likely oblivious to the fact that India and Pakistan have a lot of history in common, having both been part of Britain's Indian colony before 1947.

Karzai will probably just let this all slide. Musharraf didn't say anything that would really hurt him--like insulting his fashion sense.