"You can't be president and head of the military at the same time." That's not my words, but George W. Bush's [1]. Those were interesting words coming from the United State's Head of State and Commander-in-chief [2]. In light of his words, I contemplated how precarious our democratic government is.
At issue is that President Musharaf overtook the government and has held the government of Pakistan in a military coup. Threatened by Islamists in the rural regions and a popular political adversary in an upcoming election, the president instituted military rule last week, suspending the nation's constitution. Lawyers were furious and have raised a groundswell of resistance.
Ours is a unique situation. We have lived more than two hundred years under this constitution. For most of us, this seems like it will last forever. In an interview on C-SPAN's Afterwords [3], Naomi Wolf, author of "The End of America: Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot" pointed out trends she sees toward the gradual end of our liberties as our federal government assumes more executive power.
Perhaps the President's words will serve as a warning to our nation in the near future.
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