Musharraf came to power in Pakistan in 1999, before the Age of Dubya and due to internal conditions inside his country. He was not approved of by Washington, but after 9/11 we had to make kissy-kissy with him in order to prosecute the war on terror. How this makes us responsible for his continued clinging to power is beyond me; in Zimbabwe, for instance, Mugabe is screwing up his country incredibly without any assistance from the U.S..

The only real influence we've had is to help stir up some of the Tribal Areas of Pakistan (War on Terror activities) and to give Musharraf an excuse to indulge in rhetoric aimed at keeping U.S. support. Why else would he try to justify a state of emergency as necessary to crack down on islamic extremists, while actually releasing some extremists and arresting thousands of moderate democrats.

Believe it or not, people outside the United States CAN do bad things without our being behind their behavior. Imagine that!