The End of the Bush-Mush Affair

"'We've said for years that Musharraf is our best bet, and my fear is that we are about to discover how true that was,' one senior Bush administration official said, acknowledging that the United States had stuck with Mr. Musharraf for too long and developed few other relationships in Pakistan to fall back on.

"Administration officials will now have to find allies within the fractious civilian government, which has so far shown scant interest in taking on militants from the Taliban and Al Qaeda who have roosted in Pakistan's badlands along the border with Afghanistan.

"At the same time, suspicions between the American and Pakistani intelligence agencies and their militaries are deepening, and relations between the countries are at their lowest point since Mr. Musharraf pledged to ally Pakistan with the United States after the 9/11 attacks.

"Among the greatest concerns, senior American officials say, is the durability of new controls over Pakistan's nuclear program."

Michael Abramowitz and Glenn Kessler write in The Washington Post: "For years, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf had no stronger supporter than President Bush. . . .

"[A]fter seven years of unstinting support for the onetime army general, including more than $10 billion in U.S. assistance for Pakistan since the 2001 attacks, the Bush administration finally concluded -- too late, in the view of its critics -- that time was up for Musharraf. . . .

"The shift from the Bush administration on Musharraf has been slow in coming. Even last fall, after Musharraf imposed emergency rule, Bush stood by the Pakistani president, offering only muted criticism and lauding him as 'a strong fighter against extremists and radicals' in the region. Although Musharraf's party was routed in elections this year, Bush telephoned the Pakistani president in May to say he looked forward to his continuing role in strengthening U.S.-Pakistan ties.

"'Certain folks hung on to him,' said a State Department official involved in Pakistan policy. . . .

"Despite the hope in some quarters of Washington that Musharraf could remain in his job, Bush administration officials said yesterday that they had been gradually preparing for his departure. . . .

"'We're confident that we will maintain a good relationship with the government of Pakistan,' White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe told reporters in Crawford, Tex., where the president is spending the week at his ranch."

Greg Miller writes in the Los Angeles Times: "Musharraf was arguably the administration's most important ally in the fight against Islamic extremists. But when he resigned the presidency Monday, senior counter-terrorism officials in the U.S. government said there was more relief than anxiety rippling through their ranks that the drama over Musharraf's fate had ended.

"Even at the height of his powers, the man who long commanded Pakistan's army had produced uneven results in countering the militant threat based in his country's northwest, said U.S. intelligence officials, all of whom requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the relationship.