TPMTV: The Devil You Know

Over the weekend President Pervez Musharraf declared a State of Emergency in Pakistan, instituting martial law, suspending the constitution, and firing the chief justice of the supreme court. Police have also begun rounding up scores of lawyers, judges, and activists, and the state has taken control of many of the private television stations and raided newspaper offices. This puts the Bush administration in a nearly impossible bind: oppose a Musharraf dictatorship or continue to support a leader who has been one of America's lone allies in the region in waging the war on terror. All this under the specter of a nuclear power teetering on the brink of failed statehood.