In The Line Of Fire In Quite A Mire ..

Mr. Pervez Musharraf (General) would have thought of not wetting his pants when he was threatened, albeit not at gun point by Richard Armitage. And so, he was all too willing to switch sides from the Taliban to the U.S of A. Through his autobiography, the general has apparently made these remarks, which he was only too willing to disclaim when he had the joint press conference with George Bush 2 days before the release of his book, "In the line of fire". That he declared it in a humorous way does not detract from the more dubious claims he has made in his book.

The book, released on September 25th, Monday in New York, goes on to claim that Kargil was in fact a victory for Pakistan. And in fact also states that the Kargil war in fact helped both the countries come to the negotiating table. Really, he is indirectly proclaiming that any acts of war or terror would be the main trigger to bring in the parties at war to negotiations. A really unwarranted statement he has made in his memoirs, which really seem to have been a mix of day dreams and nightmares. Nightmares of how Pakistan cannot cope with a strike by the U.S due to the lack of homogenity and because a strike by the U.S if not co-operative on terrorism would cripple the Pakistani economy badly forever. Clearly, he projected Pakistan as a fragile nation, not even capable of being united when being under attack. Sad statement considering that he is the general of the army staff. One wonders how on earth can the Pakistani public believe in such an individual ?

The general has also retracted from some astonishing revelations in his memoirs where he has mentioned that CIA officials in the U.S had paid millions of dollars in return for Al Qaeda suspects whom Pakistan had handed over to U.S.A. The general now, has said in an interview that such a thing was untrue and if it was part of the book, then these statements would have to be removed. Apparently the general says that the money was not given to the "government" per se , but the book clearly says so. Quite embarrassing for the general to say the least. What all this has helped though is the moolah he will rake in through the royalties which he will get. Since it is already in the top 10 best sellers, one should imagine the general would be able to live a monetarily happy life later on.

More significant remarks that the general has made are regarding his interactions with the incumbent Indian PM, Manmohan Singh. While he says that he got positive vibes from the Indian PM 2 years ago, the same seemed to be withering away, and he felt that the Indian PM needs to get more bold. Well, for a man who still claims the violence in Kashmir is apparently a freedom struggle and this was NOT the reason for the Agra Summit failure, such dithering is very problematic. More so for the Indian establishment, for one the one hand he says he is not confident of Manmohan Singh, but at the meeting on the sidelines of the NAM summit, he feels there has been a positive impact after the nearly one hour talk. Clearly, the general seems to have constant bouts of amnesia or is irrevocably delusive by nature. All said and done, his book will sell. And that is something for which he needs to be given credit for. As for his credibility itself, it has spiralled dramatically downwards.

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