The question needs to be reversed: only a strong state can build a strong military, and not the other way around. Wherever the military has taken over the state, or made itself synonymous with the state’s preservation, both the military and the state have weakened. Protected by the thin veneer of false patriotism, a military regime with civilian authority destroys the very principles that make an armed force viable – accountability being at the top of the list.
Pakistan, like so many other nations that have been victims of dictatorship, has a familiar problem. Its policy has enough loopholes to permit dictators to get into power, but no one has discovered an efficient, or even untidy, exit route. It requires either a domestic calamity (the bungled wars of 1965 and 1971) or divine intervention (as in the case of General Zia ul Haq) to remove Pakistan's generals from office. President Pervez Musharraf has been intelligent enough to avoid the first, and lucky enough to survive the second. One wonders if Pakistan's luck is as good as his.
Please e-mail PostGlobal if you'd like to receive an email notification when PostGlobal sends out a new question.
