Pay up time

General (retd) Pervez Musharraf once again appeared on almost all television channels after a long time, all arrogance that he radiated when in power gone. He is the one single person who did maximum damage to this country's sense of sovereignty way back in 2001 when he agreed to the US demands for assistance in order to launch an attack on neighbouring Afghanistan. That country is now under the US and NATO forces' occupation resented and resisted by the Afghan tribes in keeping with their history.
The result is that the country remains in deep turmoil and arguably the US is in a quagmire there. Violence is widespread and there is, according to the people who know, no government beyond Kabul. What was conceived as a quick, shock and awe operation remains a failure even eight years later. The allied forces of occupation are nowhere near controlling the country. They are bunkered in Kabul, in a manner of speaking, as the Afghan resistance and Al-Qaeda continue to fight them.
Frustrated by their failure, the Karzai government blames Pakistan for their problems, something that the Americans buy although they now see him as a liability. As a consequence, the war has been brought into the tribal area, destabilising the NWFP and creating a serious security situation for the rest of the country.
The rest of the country too has been rocked by repeated and massive acts of terrorist violence affecting stability of daily life in this country. Terrorism has slowed economic activity, aggravating the financial melt down, and investors are unwilling to come here. A breeding ground for terrorists is how some people describe Pakistan today.