WAKE UP: Jim Hoagland has a deeply cynical view of Pakistan and Pervez Musharraf, strikingly at odds with much of the positive press he has received since 9/11. There is no doubt that Musharraf has done many good things since that date - his moves against the terror-supporting elements of his country go much further than anything Yasser Arafat has dreamed of doing - but it if Hoagland is correct, it is important to face up to the flaws that remain.
Contra the NYT's constant bleating, the disintegration in the Israeli-Palestinian "peace process" is not because the Bush administration disengaged from the region. Far more responsible was the Israeli and American years-long refusal to face the ramifications of the skin-deep commitment of the Palestinians to a peaceful compromise - the refusal to admit that the massive arming of the innumerable Palestinian "security" forces or the constant hatred taught by the Palestinian schools and media meant anything. If Musharraf's efforts are similarly flawed (even through no fault of his own), the worst thing the U.S. can do is to wish those flaws away as it did with the Palestinians.