Another Bush Backfire

"No one in Foggy Bottom seems willing to question Cheney's decisions."

Bush Flashback

Here's more from Bush's Sept. 22, 2006, joint press availability with Musharraf at the White House: "I admire your leadership. I admire your courage. And I thank you very much for working on common strategies to protect our respective peoples."

Bush explained: "We talked about democracy. The last time I was with the President, he assured me, and assured the people that were listening to the news conference, that there would be free and fair elections in Pakistan in 2007. He renewed that commitment, because he understands that the best way to defeat radicalism and extremism is to give people a chance to participate in the political process of a nation."

Here's Bush just last July, speaking in Cleveland: "Musharraf is a strong ally in the war against these extremists. I like him and I appreciate him. I'm, of course, constantly working with him to make sure that democracy continues to advance in Pakistan. He's been a valuable ally in rejecting extremists. And that's important, to cultivate those allies."

The Money Still Flows

David E. Sanger and David Rohde write in the New York Times: "The Bush administration signaled Sunday that it would probably keep billions of dollars flowing to Pakistan's military, despite the detention of human rights advocates and leaders of the political opposition by Gen. Pervez Musharraf, the country's president.

"In carefully calibrated public statements and blunter private acknowledgments about the limits of American leverage over General Musharraf, the man President Bush has called one of his most critical allies, the officials argued that it would be counterproductive to let Pakistan's political turmoil interfere with their best hope of ousting Al Qaeda's central leadership and the Taliban from the country's mountainous tribal areas."

But consider what all that money has -- or hasn't -- bought us.

Greg Miller writes in the Los Angeles Times: "Despite billions of dollars in U.S. military payments to Pakistan over the last six years, the paramilitary force leading the pursuit of Al Qaeda militants remains underfunded, poorly trained and overwhelmingly outgunned, U.S. military and intelligence officials said. . . .

"[R]ather than use the more than $7 billion in U.S. military aid to bolster its counter-terrorism capabilities, Pakistan has spent the bulk of it on heavy arms, aircraft and equipment that U.S. officials say are far more suited for conventional warfare with India, its regional rival.

"That has left fighters with the paramilitary force, known as the Frontier Corps, equipped often with little more than 'sandals and bolt-action rifles,' said a senior Western military official in Islamabad, even as they face Al Qaeda and Taliban fighters equipped with assault rifles and grenade launchers."

The Bush Backlash

Dan Balz and Jon Cohen write in The Washington Post: "One year out from the 2008 election, Americans are deeply pessimistic and eager for a change in direction from the agenda and priorities of President Bush, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

"Concern about the economy, the war in Iraq and growing dissatisfaction with the political environment in Washington all contribute to the lowest public assessment of the direction of the country in more than a decade. Just 24 percent think the nation is on the right track, and three-quarters said they want the next president to chart a course that is different than that pursued by Bush. . . .