On the November 28 edition of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor, host Bill O'Reilly said that the Bush administration should “consider allowing the Iraqi military to run the place, much like [President Pervez] Musharraf runs Pakistan.” Musharraf, a general in the Pakistani army, took control of the country in a bloodless coup in 1999. After vowing to step down as his country's military leader in 2005, Musharraf reneged and now plans to stay until 2007.
O'Reilly's endorsement of Musharraf came months after he advocated a return to Saddam Hussein's tactics in Iraq. As Media Matters for America documented, on the June 19 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, O'Reilly recommended that Iraq be run “just like Saddam ran it” by establishing curfews and shooting violators “right between the eyes.” Similarly, on the June 27 edition of his radio program, O'Reilly suggested that "[i]f we wage the war the way Saddam handled Iraq, then we would have already won."
The federal government of Pakistan, which President Bush has stated is an ally in the fight against terrorism, signed a "peace agreement" in September with tribes in its North and South Waziristan regions; the tribes are reported to be allied with the Taliban and Al Qaeda. According to a September 10 Washington Post article, intelligence officials believe that Osama bin Laden is on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border and that Pakistan has been “unwilling[] to pursue him.”
Human Rights Watch (HRW) has previously documented abuses by the Pakistani government and recently urged British Prime Minister Tony Blair to call on Musharraf to end “Pakistan's use of torture and 'disappearances' in both the fight against terrorism and internal political conflicts.” From a November 17 HRW press release:
Abuses by Pakistani military and civilian authorities against political opponents of the government -- including extrajudicial killings, “disappearances,” torture and arbitrary arrests -- have also increased dramatically under Musharraf's rule. Pakistan's military and its intelligence agencies have tortured and forcibly “disappeared” scores of people in the volatile southwestern province of Balochistan, where the government has confronted an armed rebellion by tribal militants operating under the umbrella of the Balochistan Liberation Army. In Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas, an aerial attack by the military on October 30 in the town of Khar in Bajaur Agency killed 82 people, including several children. A military spokesman claimed the dead were all militants and rejected calls for an independent investigation.
From the November 28 edition of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor:
O'REILLY: The problem in Iraq is not America. The problem is the Iraqis themselves. They're not fighting for their freedom in a way that puts the bad guys on the defensive.
There is only so much the USA can do. If the Iraqi people are unwilling to challenge the bad guys, the bad guys will win, period.
The vital problem now is how to protect U.S. troops from the bad guys in Iraq. If we pull a John Murtha and bail out, Al Qaeda and Iran win big. But clearly, the status quo will not hold.
If the Bush administration will not consider dividing the country into three autonomous regions, then it must consider allowing the Iraqi military to run the place, much like Musharraf runs Pakistan. Yes, that would be brutal, but clearly the Iraqi people are not embracing freedom. So imposing order through a military strongman might be the only way.