On Musharraf

National Review's managing editor, Jay Nordlinger, has been in Davos, Switzerland the past week reporting from the tres chic World Economic Forum. It's his third year reporting from this high profile event. His vignettes and stories about what goes on at the WEF is tremendously valuable as it captures world figures being themselves much more than the general media cares to report. His Davos' dispatches from last year were absolutely classic.

They are less interesting this year - due I think to the underlying actors themselves than any deterioration in Nordlinger's reporting. Yesterday's installment though had a refreshing look at Prime Minister Ahmed Mahmoud Nazir of Egypt and Prime Minister Musharraf of Pakistan. Worth reading in it's entirety but check these comments from Musharraf:

Someone asks, "Why should Pakistan and India be able to have the A-bomb, and Iran not?" Musharraf says that the only good reason to have a nuclear weapon is to deter aggression. "When India went unconventional, we went unconventional" — because "the balance" was upset. "Ours is a threat perception; India's may be a world projection." So why should the mullahs be deprived of their nukes? "I don't see a threat to Iran."
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A word about Israel and the PA: "Who would have thought the whole Islamic world would be praying for the recovery of Ariel Sharon?" And, "Hamas must go for an approach of reconciliation. And if it does, the United States should accept that."
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Finally, you may especially like this: The journalists invite Musharraf to condemn the United States for its recent raid against al Qaeda, on Pakistani soil. They sort of bait him into rebuking his American ally — holy Pakistani sovereignty, and all that.

Musharraf makes clear that Pakistan did not know about the raid in advance. (Therefore, it gave no permission.) He makes clear Pakistan's disapproval of that raid. But he wonders why no one ever mentions the violation of Pakistani sovereignty by al Qaeda and other foreigners. Yes, Pakistan doesn't like the United States operating on its soil. But what about these legions of terrorists? The United States is helping Pakistan get rid of them. The Pakistanis have captured Sudanese, Chechens, Uzbeks, Arabs, and more.

Fascinating man this Musharraf, I must admit I was quite taken aback at the military coup that brought him to power all those years ago. The fact that he threw his lot in with us and not with the Taliban made a difference. We may be well served with a long and healthy Musharraf administration - and I think we'll miss him once he's gone.