MUSHARRAF TO QUIT?

According to this in the February 24, 2008 edition of the Washington Times:

ISLAMABAD (London Sunday Telegraph) — Pervez Musharraf is considering stepping down as president of Pakistan rather than waiting to be forced out by his victorious opponents, his aides say.

One close confidant said the president believes he has run out of options after three of the main parties who triumphed in last week's elections announced they would form a coalition government, and he also pledged to reinstate the country's chief justice and 60 other judges fired by Mr. Musharraf in November.

"He has already started discussing the exit strategy for himself," a close friend said. "I think it is now just a matter of days and not months because he would like to make a graceful exit on a high."...

Can Musharraf's opposition govern Pakistan without putting the rest of the region and perhaps the world at risk?

• Relipaundit adds: Great question AOW. I think that Pakistan has been al Qaeda's central front for several months - ever since the surge started working. They assassinated Bhutto to increase instability, help the islamicist Sharif and dethrone Musharraf. The election results in Pakistan will do to Pakistan what the results in the so-called "occupied territories" did to the so-called palestinians: as Hamas made Gaza worse for democracy & peace, and better for jihadism, so to will Sharif and Zardari make Pakistan worse for democracy & peace, and better for jihadism --- PLUS: THEY HAVE NUKES.

• This makes these developments very troubling.

• I hope the Pakistan Army is strong enough to mount another coup before Pakistan - and its nukes - fall into the wrong hands. The Pakistan Army is run by an American trained, pro-West general we can count on.