Polling Badly
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf -- a key U.S. ally -- is less popular in his own country than al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, according to a poll of Pakistanis conducted last month by an anti-terrorism organization.
To some degree, this isn't a huge surprise. The US, Pakistan, and others spent a good deal of money and time back in the eighties portraying bin Laden and his mujahideen buddies as heroic freedom fighters. Musharraf, on the other hand, is considered a sell-out and a tyrant, and has both the Islamists and the secular liberals opposed to his rule. I would be curious to see the distribution of the support for bin Laden, though. I'm betting it is far higher and growing in areas where there has been military action.
"We have conducted 23 polls all over the Muslim world, and this is the most disturbing one we have conducted," said Ken Ballen, the group's head. "Pakistan is the one Muslim nation that has nuclear weapons, and the people who want to use them against us -- like the Taliban and al Qaeda -- are more popular there than our allies like Musharraf."
Not entirely comforting, but entirely consistent with the way the US chooses its allies. Musharraf is running a military dictatorship, which has little in common with the so-called "freedom" agenda, but the US sees the military strongman as a bulwark against the Islamists, so he continues to recieve their support.
It is important to note that Benazir Bhutto has a far higher approval rating than either man, which indicates Pakistan is hardly a fundamentalist stronghold at the moment. Musharraf's recent battles with the judiciary also indicate that there is still a powerful secular establishment in place to organize and take over from his dictatorial rule.
All too often, it seems, the dictators in the Middle East use the West’s fear of Islamists as an excuse to stay in power and crack down on all of their opponents. Since they can’t shut down the mosques as easily as they can other opposition focus points, the result is that the Islamists wind up being the only organized opposition force standing. That apparently hasn’t happened in Pakistan yet, but prop up Musharraf long enough while he crushes his secular opposition and you can be sure it will.
The part of the poll that’s truly concerning is that only 4 percent of Pakistanis believe the US has good motivations behind the “War on Terror”. That level of distrust can’t help but make people look upon the US’s foes more favourably, and makes supporting the war highly problematic for any Pakistani leader.
