Bhutto to West: Choose Dictator or Democracy

The US talks a lot about promoting democracy, notes former Pakistani PM Benazir Bhutto; now she's challenging the Bush administration to follow through and confront Gen. Pervez Musharraf over what she calls a second coup, his imposition of martial law in Pakistan last weekend. "The moment has come for the Western democracies to show us in their actions, and not just in their rhetoric, which side they are on," writes Bhutto in a NY Times op ed piece.

The suspension of constitutional rights has removed any pretense that Pakistan is anything but than a military dictatorship, she writes. Citing Bush's past vows to aid those who stand against tyranny, she challenges the administration to insist that Musharraf hold free elections within the next 60 days—"He should be given that choice: democracy or dictatorship with isolation." (More Pakistan stories.)