Musharraf the buffoon


For the past few days, it has become a regular feature of my day to go through the daily coverage of Musharraf’s book. Every day, a new bombshell is dropped. Makes for very good reading. People may update themselves with the latest on-goings here- http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/specialcoverage/2029561.cms

I seriously cannot understand how a self-respecting army man can come to this. Politicians are known for it, but not a soldier. He’s becoming the laughing stock of the world. And still he keeps on making appearances on American TV channels to plug his book. But looking at the history of past dictators, one shouldn’t be so surprised. They all suffer from self delusion, and the effect just keeps on increasing the more they stay atop their throne.

Mr Bush…you have some serious competetion now.

17 thoughts on “Musharraf the buffoon

  1. i think i’m gonna read the book itself rather than go through someone’s coverage of it. coz u’ll inherit the reviewer’s bias and the reviewer’s perceptions. and i have grown to take teh online editions of indian newspapers with a big pinch of salt. i used to really respect TOI the newspaper before, but the online editions are simply too awful to be bothered with.

    i’ve contacts at simon & schuster and i guess i shd give them a ring soon to reserve my copy of the book. i don’t intend to buy it 😉

  2. he’s more delusional than i thought.so whats going to be the next revelation..that india actually runs the ISI and it inflicts terror on itself to gain sympathy from everyone.
    @chocky
    did you watch the comedy show he was on?i think its called the daily news or something hosted by the comedy central chap.hilarious

  3. choc- You don’t have to go with the online editions…they have the entire thing as an e-paper. Exactly the same thing as the paper we get. Abt the book…I’m looking forward to you reading it:D.

  4. hello, i just posted the link there in my second post, Jon Stewart show… did u guys miss it?? yeah it was hilarious.

    i do think he went overboard with the insinuations… well i guess controversy sells more than plain ol facts, and at the end of the day, he wins a nice fat buck. i don’t think he’s a buffoon. i think he’s a shrewd fellow, a logical fellow, everything he says/does is deliberate, he’s not emotional/foolish…. last but not least i think he’s quite egoistic.

  5. i would wait til i have read the book before i pass judments like bufoon on the leader of a country. even if he is pakistani. he’s not an idiot, like i said, and what’s really foolish is to underestimate someone’s capabilities, esp when they’re ur rival…

    how many of u have even read his book? i find it amusing that ppl are passing judgment without having read it. why? coz he’s the prez of pak, and we’re sposed to aitomatically trash him, and no other reason. are we that insecure???

    as to his appearances on US shows, on the first one he did, he seemed lil uncomfortable, but on the later ones i think he handled them pretty well. now wait til we start seeing a new breed of world leaders start to make appearances on US shows to garner good press for their nation. by appearing on this shows, he wasn’t simply feeding his ego, he was trying to change the perception of americans towards his country. i thought that was a very smart move.

    oh, but who cares, let’s just call him a buffoon and move on…

  6. Ok. I have not read the book. But I think we can atleast trust the quotes from the book which have been doing rounds in the media. Not just Indian, not just American, but worldwide. Here are a few examples:

    1) Kargil- Musharraf says it was India which was going to attack Pakistan, and not otherwise. So his whole Kargil exercise was actually an act of defense, saving Pakistan from an imminent Indian attack. And contrary to his earlier views during the war, when he said it was only “freedom fighters” and not Pakistani Army which was involved in the war, he admits involvement of his Army. After the war, he actually refused to accept bodies of Pakistani soldiers, which caused much uproar in his army.

    2)AQ Khan- Musharraf says that Indians were involved in AQ Khan’s Dubai network, who disappeared after sometime…apparently with blueprints and technical documentation. This is a quote from the book: “There is strong probability that the genesis of the Indian uranium enrichment programme may also have its roots in the Dubai-based network and could be a copy of the Pakistani centrifuge design. This has also been recently alluded to by an eminent US non-proliferation analyst”.
    Fine…India stole the centrifuge design. But we’re so dumb that we still have been struggling with centrifuge based enrichment in all these years.
    Also…Musharraf has many times claimed that he had no clue of the proliferation activities. All nuclear sites are guarded by Pakistani Army. And all the equipment which flew out of the country, flew in military plains. And Musharraf claims to be a very smart and shrewd General. Come on!
    Also…after all this, AQ Khan is comfortably kept under house arrest. And he cannot be interrogated by the CIA. Because he is a “national hero” and gave them the nuclear bomb.

    3)CIA payouts- Musharraf wrote in his book that the Pakistani Government (Yes…he did write “Government”) received millions of dollars from the CIA for handing over the Al Qayeda operatives. When questioned by the press whether it was the government which got the money, he declined…and said it were individuals. Then he was told that the book says its the government which got the money. Upon hearing this he said that it must have been written by mistake.

    4)US ultimatum after 9/11- Musharraf says that after receiving warnings from Colin Powell that “You’re either with us or against us” and by Richard Armitage that “You’ll be bombed to stone age”, he actually war gamed US as an enemy. Come on! Who in his right senses would do that! Even Russia and China would look for alternatives. But not Musharraf, ofcourse, because he’s a very shrewd General. And he did not enter into a pact with US against terror because of the terror threat, but because it was in his national interest. And that if he didn’t do that, someone else (read India) would use the opportunity.

    I don’t know how many more quotes I’ll find once I actually read the book.
    Anyone remember Mukhtaran Mai? Please goto the link below and read what is said in it- http://tomwatson.typepad.com/tom_watson/2005/06/musharraf_cowar.html

  7. Its great that he’s appearing in the press and TV to change the notion Americans have of his country. But then, it would be even better if he actually cared about his country instead of just talking about it. I have a few friends in Pakistan, and they’re liberal, open minded. I’m all for friendship between the two nations…but the powers to be simply don’t want that to happen.

  8. i’m getting a copy of the book today (hopefully my contact at Simon&Schuster has saved me a copy coz i don’t intend to spend a penny on it 🙂 I will read it and then respond 🙂

    i haven’t read these quotes that ure referring to, i have only seen n heard pplz interpretation of those quotes, like u’ve given above. i like to get my sources untainted, straight from the horse’s mouth, so if u have any links that quote the book itself (and i don’t trust indian online papers, give me a “worldwide” source that u mentioned previously), then plz do post them, i’d like to see that. i’m sure he’s said many controversial and questionable things, i’ve heard he’s opined more than he’s stated facts, that much i do know. also, did u know that he himself didn’t write the book? he just provided the material, someone else wrote it. so yeah i’d take it all with a pinch of salt, but hey when u can have a Bush, then why not a Mush?

  9. yeah i hated the way he dealt with the mukhtaran mai issue, but we don’t always agree with every decision leaders take. they are made (or become) leaders to take decisions on our behalf .. “A representative owes u not his industry only, but also his judgment, and he betrays u instead of serving u, if he sacrifices it to your opinion” – edmund burke. politics is dirty business…

    and i agree with u that politicians use their personal agenda to keep ppl apart…

    but bottom line, ppl living in glass houses shudn’t throw stones… cmon we have our share of buffoons too…. mush just got into the limelight first. and honestly i’d love to see one of our leaders make it to teh world stage…. but we need someone with intelligence and charisma. any eligible ppl out there?

  10. ok i gotta tell u guys this… in my office we were discussing mush’s appearance on the various shows, one of my colleagues is pakistani…

    so our other colleagues, all americans, were saying that oh, we learnt quite a bit abt pakistan that we didn’t know before, it was pretty funny, blah blah

    another american dude was saying, he’s quite articulate, i’m actually jealous of pakistan now, look what we have for president
    (i thought that was the most hilarious thing, i wanted to say, dude, u havent’ met india’s lalloo, but i kept quiet)

    another dude was speculating on an interesting point of view. he thought that this highly controversial book was mushy’s way of preparing for the afterlife/retirement. after all, with 2 assassination attempts on his life, no way he’d stay in pak after retirement, the cash from the book sales would come in real handy when he’s ready to move out to a safe haven. btw his son lives in Massachussetts, USA.

    i think this third guy prolly has it right… mush may be egoistic, but he’s not dumb. he making some money, prolly he doesnt care what he says to make his dollar… but i think u’re being hasty presuming him dumb, he actually walked away with a favourable image in the eyes of most americans i have run into in person or online. dunno what columns u’ve been reading…

  11. This is Google’s aggregation of all articles related to Musharraf, from International and Indian media->
    http://news.google.com/?ncl=http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/2037515.cms&hl=en

    There are some smart young politicians (MPs) now…but they have to get into the higher echelons.

    “he’s quite articulate, i’m actually jealous of pakistan now, look what we have for president “

    Lol yeah…he refers to Bush as “what” instead of “who”:))

    Guess what…Mr Lalu is going places these days. A professor of a French business school came to meet him to figure out how he was able to turn around the fortunes of Indian Railways. And he was invited to give a lecture at IIM-A too on the same topic.

    Yeah…the “third guy’s” opinion is shared by some people in the media too. I read in that article that he has been offered a safe haven in USA after he retires, and that his son and brother are already there. So it may very well be a calculated move. But only time will tell:)

  12. kewl, i’ll chk out the link.. i didn’t get my copy of the book, my friend at S&S was gone by the time i got to her office. but she does have a copy for me 🙂

    yeah i thought it was funny that he referred to bush as a “what” lolz

    lalloo going places, that’s hilarious… but honestly i’m waiting for teh day his memoirs come out…. would be too funny..

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