I bet none of his friends...

Ever gets to call him "Mushy".

-- PAKISTAN -- There has long been a deep fear within the administration, particularly among intelligence officials, that an imperfect General Musharraf is better for American interests than an unknown in a volatile country that is central to the administration’s fight against terrorism.

In recent months the White House had been hoping that a power-sharing alliance between General Musharraf and Pakistan’s former prime minister, Benazir Bhutto, would help the general cling to power while putting a democratic face on his regime.

As it has been... ever since the first man picked up a club and started pushing his fellow cave dwellers around... the birth of democracy is never a painless, or even a bloodless, event.

Now, experts predict that the United States will be watching Pakistan closely in the coming days to see how hard General Musharraf cracks down on his opponents — and whether opposition political leaders, journalists and scholars are imprisoned.

There is, of course, the wild card.

Much of the attention will be on Ms. Bhutto, who strongly condemned the emergency declaration and quickly cut short a visit to Dubai to return to Pakistan during the crisis.

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THE SCOOP: Between a rock and an "impossible" place

The semi-autonomous tribal lands consist of seven parts called “agencies”: Bajaur, Mohmand, Khyber, Orakzai, Kurram, and North and South Waziristan. There are also six smaller zones known as frontier regions in the transitional area between the tribal lands and the North-West Frontier Province to the east.

For the area’s tribesmen, being citizens of Pakistan is secondary to their Pashtun identity, and they regard foreigners, including Pakistani forces, with suspicion.

As if this weren't complicated enough... along comes a geo-political "thumb in the eye" called 9/11.

Historically, Islamabad has exercised limited authority over the tribal agencies, but after the 9/11 attacks, the region came under the scrutiny of the United States as Taliban and al-Qaeda members took refuge there.

Under U.S. pressure, President Musharraf ordered a counterterrorism maneuver involving the deployment of eighty thousand Pakistani troops over the course of the operation, which took place mainly in the agencies of North and South Waziristan. But the operation backfired when the forces failed to win a decisive victory.

The conflict became increasingly unpopular with the Pakistani armed forces, the core of Musharraf’s support, among which there is a sense they are fighting their own countrymen under U.S. pressure. (Pashtuns are the second-largest ethnic group represented among the troops.)

And like most places in the developing world... things are never, ever as straightforward as they seem.

The Taliban also received past—and, some say, present—support from the Pakistani military and intelligence agency.

On top of that, Gannon says the military’s operation in the Waziristan agencies stirred up the Pashtun desire for vengeance. “The more tribespeople you killed, the more you created a whole group who had to seek revenge,” explains Gannon.

By June 2006, Musharraf realized he had to negotiate with tribal leaders to end the unpopular conflict.

A major wrench in the works here, is the fact that Pakistan has a robust nuclear capability. And that's a possible outcome that scares the shit out of everyone, with the possible exception of the death-seeking jihadis, involved in this mess.

Let's just say that nobody in positions of authority in India or Israel is sleeping soundly right at the moment.

No two ways about it... you're either afraid... or you're crazy.

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UPDATE: Looks like the "Full Musharraf"

-- ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- Police wielding assault rifles rounded up opposition leaders and rights activists Sunday after Pakistan's military ruler suspended the constitution, ousted the top justice and deployed troops to fight what he called rising Islamic extremism.

General Pervez Musharraf, who seized power in a 1999 coup but had promised to hand over his army fatigues and become a civilian president this year, declared a state of emergency Saturday night, dashing hopes of a smooth transition to democracy for the nuclear-armed nation.

"Gen. Musharraf's second coup," read the headline in the Dawn daily. "It is martial law," said the Daily Times.