The recent troubles in Pakistan are just the most recent example of the problems that plague the Muslim world. From one end to the other there is a struggle between Islamists, the autocrats that govern them, and the average person who wants to have a better life. Sadly, the last group comes out being the loser more often than not.

Pervez Musharraf, surrounded on all sides, from liberals and lawyers and from Islamists in the tribal regions, took the way leaders in the Muslim world usually take. With a flimsy pretext he proclaimed emergency rule(that means martial law) and removed the last vestiges of democracy that survived the 1999 coup that brought him to power.

Musharraf, like most dictators, has good luck. But like all dictators find out their luck runs out sooner or later. When he came to power in 1999 he was condemned and placed under sanctions for removing the democratically elected Sharif government. Then came 9-11. Now Musharraf was needed as an ally against the Islamo fascists. He was only too happy to cooperate. After all it got him off the pariah list, and the Islamists had been out for his head. But, while it got him in good with the west, the Taliban supporters in the tribal lands didn't like it. Once he sided with the west he became a target of their fury, and as his government has proven as incompetent as other military regimes the country has seen, the rest of the people turned against him.

Dictators have always justified their rule by warning against worse problems to come if they are removed from power. For example, Hosni Mubarak keeps emergency rule and squelches democratic reform by claiming that if his regime falls the Muslim Brotherhood and Islamic theocracy will be the inevitable result. Musharraf, with a large Islamist population, makes the same claim. Now, the fact that Pakistan has nuclear weapons makes that claim all the more serious, and it makes Pakistan a country that the United States can no longer ignore and be indifferent as to who is running the country.

Musharraf has used us as much as we have used him. But now it is time for that relationship to come to an end. With him jailing lawyers, and opposition leaders, he has crossed the line from being our S.O.B to just being an S.O.B. overall. Musharraf feels secure that the west will take no action against him, it's time that the United States reminds him that he can be replaced. His battles with Islamists have not produced any serious benefits for America as the Taliban, and Al-Qaida, use the tribal regions as a safe haven. Clearly he is not getting the job done on any front, and his increasing dictatorial behavior is destabalizing a nuclear country and making it more dangerous for the United States.

It's the endemic dictatorships that breed the unrest that leads to terrorism. We can't fight terror in Iraq, and allow it to grow in Pakistan by keeping Musharraf in power. President Bush is right to demand elections, but it needs to be more than that. Elections in Pakistan have a way of producing corrupt governments that lead to military rule. The foundation for democracy must be laid with the rule of law, property rights, and civil liberties.

A nuclear armed Pakistan can't be allowed to fall into the hands of Taliban sympathizers. True Democracy will prevent that from happening.