Word: pakistans
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President Asif Ali Zardari, Bhutto's widower, has a small plurality in Parliament, little sway over Pakistan's all-powerful military and none of the charisma of his murdered wife. But for the moment, he will probably be Holbrooke's most enthusiastic partner. For all of Zardari's flaws, says Riedel, "he gets it: he knows this is as much his war as it is ours." Zardari can't ignore the now routine terrorist strikes within Pakistan; suicide bombers have attacked major cities, killing hundreds. Besides, since Bhutto's death, Zardari is at the top of al-Qaeda...
Whether he can deliver, though, is another matter. "None of the things [the U.S.] cares about are in his control," says Christine Fair, a South Asia expert at the Rand Corp. Pakistan's security forces and intelligence agencies are hardly answerable to the civilian government. Still, the Obama Administration could at least try to strengthen Zardari's hand. A bill proposed last year by then Senator Joe Biden and Senator Richard Lugar calls for trebling U.S. economic assistance to Pakistan, to $1.5 billion annually for five years, with a possible extension for another five years. The bill enjoys bipartisan support...
...mildly, wise spending of such aid is not a given. Pakistan has a long history of corruption, so any leverage the U.S. has over Zardari might be used to ensure that he runs a clean administration and rebuilds Pakistan's institutions. Leaders of the reformist lawyers movement that helped undermine Musharraf, for example, say Zardari hasn't yet restored the courts' independence...
Even if democracy took root in Pakistan, it would be years--decades, probably--before it so improved the state of the nation that the swamps where militants breed are drained. Which is one reason that, in the past, some in Washington impatient with the Pakistani government have reached for a second option--one that backs the men in uniform rather than those in suits...
There's some argument for that. An old joke in Islamabad: All countries have armies, but in Pakistan, the army has a country. Indeed, military dictators have ruled Pakistan for much of its 61-year history, and the armed forces control vast swaths of the economy...