Musharraf: Stepping Up by Stepping Down

Pakistan's President (or Dictator-in-Chief) will step down so that the "factions" at work in his country don't start a bloodbath.

Either the situation in Pakistan is really, really dire or this is one of those "a resignation by any other name" scenarios where the President steps down but runs everything from the safe cocoon of an "undisclosed location."

Sometimes it takes a dictator to keep society in line. Exhibit A: Iraq under Saddam. Exhibit B: Indonesia under Suharto.

Pakistan's "security" hangs by an AK-47 as it is. Just look at Musharraf: in Afghanistan, they accuse him of being in league with Al-Qaeda and attempting to assassinate democratic Afghan leaders. In Pakistan, he's dodging bullets lobbed by none other than Al-Qaeda. Even assuming that Al-Qaeda is lobbing bullets at random these days, what the hell is up?

And is it going to get worse?