Oh, S***

Bad, bad news from Pakistan. Only a few days after the resignation of Pervez Musharraf, the anti-Musharraf coalition that controls the Pakistani government is falling apart. Fmr. PM Nawaz Sharif has pulled his PML-N party (that stands for Pakistan Muslim League (N), as in Nawaz Sharif) out of the coalition. Given that the PPP, the late Benazir Bhutto's party is secularist, and PML-N is moderately Islamist, I wonder if anyone who paid attention really didn't see this coming. The only thing that brought the two together was their mutual dislike of Musharraf.

Why is this bad, bad news for us? Well, given that the main supply line for Afghanistan runs from Karachi to Afghanistan via Peshawar, we might want to start worrying about unrest in Pakistan. I don't claim to be an expert here, but I read the experts, and I can put two and two together.

It may be starting already. There's news that a shipment of NATO supplies being readied to head north in Karachi has been attacked by gunmen. God in Heaven, I hope this isn't the start of a trend.

Simply Outrageous

I would like to know when "you are my ally" became "I won't question anything you do" under the Bush administration. In this case, the government at the heart of the "war on terror," in Afghanistan, may not be that much better, in certain areas than the Taliban.

Afghanistan has sentenced to death one Sayed Parwez Kambakhsh, a journalism student at a university in northern Afghanistan. According to the story, Kambakhsh read an article on an Iranian website taking a differing stance from the wide view on a woman's role in Islamic society, and commented on it, apparently favorably.

By all accounts, you could practically hear the kangaroo inside the court recently as Kambakhsh went in for an appeals hearing. His judge, who had risen to the bench under the Taliban, repeatedly interrupted Mr. Kambakhsh, acting more in the manner of a prosecutor than a judge, and displayed a definite antagonism towards his position. Kambakhsh's defenders had little time to prepare, and the judges throughout the series of trials have all clearly had the same antagonism towards his position.

Then, there's also this, from Registan.net:

Kambakhsh also stands accused of other crimes, such as asking too many questions in class, seeking attention and popularity, being impolite, and swapping dirty jokes over his cellphone.

This is bloody ridiculous. As the defendant's brother put it: “Welcome to the Middle Ages.”

Many clerics have petitioned President Karzai to not not execute Kambakhsh. The issue has also apparently come up in talks between the U.S., the U.K. and Afghanistan.

Why does support for Afghanistan mean "execute all of the 'apostates' or 'heretics' that you like"? Replace them with "regime critics," and it starts seeming a little scary. It seems a bit obvious to me that the "new" Afghan government is just the Taliban in drag (that would be an interesting sight). As the Who put it, "Meet the new boss/Same as the old boss."