Stardate 20011016.0416 (On Screen): Colin Powell is visiting General Musharraf in Pakistan right now, and Musharraf is worried. About a lot of things, actually, but in particular about what kind of government will run Afghanistan after the war is over. it has to be remembered that the Taliban were originally Pakistan's creature, now out of control. Pakistan sponsored the Taliban as a way of dislodging a previous government in Afghanistan that it found intolerable; the remnants of that government are up north now: the Northern Alliance. He's been saying that he doesn't want them back in power after the war is over, but it sounds now like he's giving ground on that. I think Powell may be playing a bit fast-and-loose here:
"Former king Zahir Shah, political leaders, moderate Taliban leaders, elements from the (opposition) Northern Alliance, tribal elders, Afghans living outside their country ... all can play a role in this government," Musharraf told a joint news conference.
Well, if any Taliban leaders are still alive once this is over, and if any of those qualify as "moderate", then they probably could be involved in the process. Actually, what I think this will really mean is that ethnic-Pashtun leaders will be involved; the Northern Alliance doesn't include any of them, although they make up the majority in Afghanistan. Regardless, the point of this was to give Musharraf the opportunity to make an announcement publicly to try to calm down the pro-Taliban activists in his country who have been causing so much trouble recently.
Also, Musharraf has been promising his people ever since the bombing started that the operation was not going to last a long time, and he's said the same thing again. But notice that Powell doesn't quite say the same thing: Musharraf says "It will be short" but Powell says "We'd like it to be short" -- which doesn't promise anything. Of course, most public diplomacy is based on shaving the meanings of words, especially in translation. (discuss)
