Tom Watson, whose weblog is one of the gems of the Internet, has a MUST READ post on Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf, a rape in Pakistan, and Musharraf’s silence and the White House’s silence on it.
We didn’t add it to our Around The Sphere roundup because we wanted to draw special attention to it. We will NOT quote at length since that would wreck it but here is a very small taste:
Well here’s a little more fuss for you, Mr. President – your great ally, the wonderful President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan is a weak, woman-hating, dreadful coward of a man, a friend of those who would rape to humiliate and scorn, and pillage for power and perversion.
I speak, for those who haven’t heard the news, of the Pakistani government’s kidnapping of worldwide symbol of peace and reconciliation, Mukhtaran Bibi, who I’ve written about before (here and here) on this blog. It sounds quaint and facile and boyish, but Mukhtaran Bibi is my hero – a small, willful package of courage and steel in the face of group torture and violence by the weak-souled, God-hating cowards who would make her a victim.
Watson raises the question of whether the events surrounding Bibi are one more indication of what we have seen here where our country trumpets its utmost commitment to democratic values but looks the other way if other interests are involved.
It can (and will be) argued that this is political reality — acting in the national interest. But this administration has made such a point of insisting this is a new era and that democratic values are paramount that it is NOT a nonissue if defending these values is being ignored.
READ WATSON’S WHOLE POST (including the links). Then do something about it (a letter, an email or link it yourself).
PS: He did this in the form of a challenge to various named blogs, including this one. We usually pass on that kind of thing. We’re always way behind on all of our non-blog and blog tasks. Plus, if we responded to every comment, email and post demanding we explain “how can you call yourself a moderate” or whether moderates exist we’d have no time to sleep (we politely pass on all of those as policy). The joy of working on a blog is NOT having an editor — and attempts by readers and/or bloggers to impose assignments.
But Tom Watson is a class act and he raises a good issue and is not trying to put anyone on the defensive. So how could we refuse??
Watson is outraged, gives you news links — and if you read them, you’ll be outraged, too. Then he gives you email links so you can take DIRECT action. And we’re sure you WILL..
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.