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Musharraf, as

Pakistani cooperation with Washington

cial resources and military assistance and

could also lead to an adjustment in what was

training, as well as thousands of volunteers to

head of

seen as the tilt toward India by the Bush

the forces of the Taliban and al-Qaeda. At the

Pakistan's mili-

administration. "It could even be, the wily

same time, such radical forces were the

tary, used his

General Musharraf may be dreaming, a reprise

domestic political and ideological backbone

of Cold-War days, when an indulgent United

of Musharraf's military dictatorship, which

alliance with rad-

States backed Pakistan for the sake of defeat-

was also committed to the development of

ical Muslim cler-

ing a common enemy in Afghanistan," specu-

the country's nuclear military power.

lated The Economist. In any case, if it proved

Musharraf, as head of Pakistan's military,

ics to provide

impossible to prevent the fall of the Taliban,

used his alliance with radical Muslim clerics

legitimacy to his

Pakistan was expecting to have a large say in

to provide legitimacy to his dictatorship,

dictatorship.

whatever order succeeded that regime, and per-

forming a powerful and destructive "mili-

haps even a less hostile U.S. attitude toward

tary-mosque" nexus. With Musharraf as its

Islamabad's efforts to develop a nuclear

head, that political nexus helped transform

weapons capability.17 One Pakistani official

Pakistan into a magnet for radical Islamic

argued that the Americans were now "aware of

terrorists in the region and around the world.

their past mistakes" of maginalizing Pakistan.

It was also the driving force behind the sup-

Pakistan, a "front line state" in the war against

port for Islamic insurgents, many of whom

terrorism, was telling the Americans that "you

had ties with Afghanistan-based guerrillas,

need us again" and was expecting that

who penetrated the Indian-controlled Kargil

Washington would be willing to take into con-

region of Kashmir in May 1999, a move that

sideration Pakistan's interests, including the

was a major blow to the budding détente

between Islamabad and New Delhi.19

need to "engage" the Taliban regime in negoti-

ations before taking military action against it.18

That crisis, in turn, brought about Indian

military retaliation and U.S. diplomatic pres-

sure that resulted in the withdrawal of

Pakistan's Flirtation with

Pakistani forces from Kargil, weakening the

Radical Islam

power of the democratically elected govern-

ment of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and cre-

Although Musharraf hoped to extract as

ating the conditions for his overthrow by

Musharraf's military coup in October 1999.20

much as he could from Washington in

exchange for his support in the war against

The proverbial man from Mars viewing

terrorism, he was bargaining with a very weak

U.S. foreign policy after September 11 would

hand because his government was interna-

probably be astonished at the inconsistency

tionally isolated and the Pakistani economy

of the U.S. record. Washington attached the

was bankrupt. In fact, in the months before

labels "anti-American" and "war criminal" to

the September 11 attacks, Pakistan was the

the former president of Yugoslavia, Slobodan

most important diplomatic and political ally,

Milosevic, a civilian politician elected in at

not of the United States, but of the Taliban

least quasi-democratic elections and whose

regime that harbored the al-Qaeda terrorists.

military had been at war in Kosovo and

Pakistan and Saudi Arabia were the only

Bosnia with Muslim forces that had links to

Islamic radical movements.21 Yet Washington

governments that maintained formal diplo-

matic relationship with the radical Islamic

praised General Musharraf as "courageous"

leaders in Kabul. (Saudi Arabia, another sup-

and a "visionary leader" even though he was a

posed "ally" of Washington, was the most

military dictator in control of weapons of

important channel of funds for the Taliban).

mass destruction, was backed by radical anti-

Leading Pakistani political, military, and reli-

American forces, and was an ally of a regime

gious figures and radical Islamic groups were

that helped inflict the worst terrorist attack

providing direct support in the form of finan-

ever on the American territory and people.

5