By Robert Schlesinger
Barack Obama missed a golden opportunity against John McCain when the Arizona senator made the bizarre assertion that Pakistan was a “failed state” when Pervez Musharraf came to power.
The statement is simply wrong. Pakistan had a democratically elected government. It was a nuclear nation.
Failed state? How does McCain define “failed?”
Here’s how the Fund for Peace, which has a “Failed State Index,” defines failed state:
A state that is failing has several attributes. One of the most common is the loss of physical control of its territory or a monopoly on the legitimate use of force. Other attributes of state failure include the erosion of legitimate authority to make collective decisions, an inability to provide reasonable public services, and the inability to interact with other states as a full member of the international community.
This does not describe Pakistan in 1999.
Here’s Time writing on the aftermath of the coup (emphasis mine):
Military coups used to be messy affairs, rife with panic and barricades and bloodshed. After the overthrow of the democratically elected government in Pakistan last week, there was cheering. In the span of 48 hours, army chief General Pervez Musharraf detained Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, sacked the Cabinet, suspended Parliament and the constitution, and imposed virtual martial law. Yet most Pakistanis barely shrugged. Shops remained open.
Note “democratically elected government” and note “remained” open. As in, they were open before and remained such. It’s impossible to prove a negative, so there are no contemporaneous news reports that say “by the way, this wasn’t a failed state.”
But such a breathtaking and fundamental error on McCain’s part is … really rather frightening.
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“This does not describe Pakistan in 1999.”
Sure it does. Hell, it describes Pakistan at every moment in its history, including the present. Large swaths of the country are part of Pakistan in name only.
Mr McCain’s comment re: Pakistan as a “failed state” may be tragically wrong or horribly inaccurate in context (especially to foreign relations technorati), but it is true or very close to the truth now and McCain could easily use the defense that a military coup, by definition, equals “failed state.”
On Main st. this is not a headline item from this debate unless you aggregate it with your choice of many other fuzzy statements made by the senator. A response in detail from Obama would have been a mistake.
Remember, this presidential contest, including the debates, is a political American Idol event not an objective process to decide who should lead our country.
using your preferred definition of ‘failed state’
- “One of the most common is the loss of physical control of its territory or a monopoly on the legitimate use of force”
sharif pretty much formally gave up control of the afghan-pakistan border region by imposing sharia law
- “Other attributes of state failure include the erosion of legitimate authority to make collective decisions…”
sharif attempted to push through the shariat bill which basically imposed shariah law
oh that quaint silly little constitution….
giving up territorial control and all but abolishing the constitution sounds like a failed state to me, but i guess that’s going swimmingly to robert emmet
Frankly its does not matter whether Pakistan was a failed state in 99, its semantics, and thats why Obama decided not to contest it. This is because across all key diplomatic channels and discussions Pakistan has always had the position of a US funded vassal which is 1 step away from being declared a failed state!! Its pointless arguing on a term that defines the state of affairs. On every country dimension Pakistan has been a failure and unfortunately now with the army which is a state within this failed state controling the Nuclear weapons. This is what the world should be scared about specially in a country that was peddling in the nuclear bazaar and almost sold the tech to the Libyans.