Steve Coll on the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer | 'Pakistan Faces Challenges after Musharraf's Exit'
American Strategy Program, Counterterrorism and Counterinsurgency Initiative
MARGARET WARNER: For more on all this, we turn to Steve Coll, president of the New America Foundation, a nonpartisan think-tank. He writes for the New Yorker magazine, as well, and has reported extensively from South Asia...
...So, Steve, it was always said that Pervez Musharraf was an army commander at heart. Whatever situation he was in, he'd fight his way out. He didn't try this time. Why?
STEVE COLL, New Yorker Magazine: Well, I think he finally realized that he had reached the end of the road. In his speech, he referred to the very questions you asked, which was, he said this is not a time for bravado.
And I think he was finely persuaded by those few around him who he was prepared to listen to that he had -- that he would do more damage to the cause that he had served and to his own legacy if he stuck it out.
Also, I think the army and the Americans, his two most important partners, reached a state of exhaustion with his rule and, confronted by the demands for his removal, stood by passively as it finally occurred. LINK to full transcript and video
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