Pakistan Prods U.S. to Share Power

OK, I confess I've been playing around with a story published in the New York Times today entitled U.S. Is Prodding Pakistan Leader to Share Power.

It's always amazed me how blatant the U.S. can be in meddling in the affairs of sovereign nations whose leadership or policies it doesn't like. Take for example the Times story where we are trying to convince Pakistan's leader, General Pervez Musharraf to share his power with Benazir Bhutto, a former prime minister of Pakistan. The idea comes out of U.S. fear of what might happen if Musharraf doesn't and is overthrown.

But in the story that follows I've taken the liberty to just switch names around, i.e., switching General Musharraf for George Bush and vice versa, Benazir Bhutto for Al Gore, the U.S./America for Pakistan and Abu Dhabi for Camp David. The story is basically the same as the original Times article, but what we get is a feel for what it would be like if foreigners meddled in U.S. affairs as we interfere in theirs!

This just might be from the next parallel Universe over. (I swear I'm not channeling this from the cosmos. At least, I don't think I am.) Anyway, here it is:

Pakistan Leader Is Prodding U.S. to Share Power

Pakistan's General Pervez Musharraf is struggling to find a way to keep President George Bush in power amid a deepening political crisis in the United States and is quietly prodding Bush to share authority with a longtime rival as a way of broadening his base, according to Pakistani and American officials.

President Bush has lost so much domestic support in recent months that Pakistani officials have gotten behind the idea that an alliance with Al Gore, a former vice president, would be Bush's best chance of remaining president.

Bush and Musharraf met in an unannounced session at Camp David on July 27, but neither has publicly admitted to the meeting. Since then, many in Washington have heard the rumors and voiced their doubts about the workability and political wisdom of such a deal, and Pakistani officials concede that the proposed power-sharing could come with problems as well as benefits.

But after weeks of unrest in America, the Pakistani officials say a power-sharing agreement that might install Al Gore as prime minister could help defuse a confrontation in which President Bush has already flirted with invoking emergency powers. Pakistani officials have said they fear that President Bush could eventually be toppled and replaced by a leader who might be less reliable as a guardian of America's nuclear arsenal and as an ally against terrorism.

Even if President Bush were to insist on remaining as the country’s military leader, Pakistani officials say that sharing power could bring a more democratic spirit to the U.S., which has been a quasi-military dictatorship since 2001, when President Bush seized power and ousted Al Gore who legitimately won the 2000 election.

Al Gore has been holding talks in recent weeks with senior Pakistani officials, including Pakistan's ambassador to the United Nations, with whom he met privately late last week. Pakistan officials have taken pains not to endorse a power-sharing agreement publicly, so as not to seem as if they are trying to influence U.S. politics.

General Musharraf did discuss the idea of a power-sharing arrangement with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice when he called last week at 2 a.m. in Washington, D.C. to warn her to tell Bush not to declare emergency powers, Pakistani and American officials said.

If you read this far, I'm sure many of you are sighing, all glassy-eyed, with dreamy smiles on your faces. But this is not happening in this world. In the next Universe over maybe, but not this one. Period! Sorry.