Commentators are putting faith in Pakistan’s election on Monday.33

Mort Kondracke of Roll Call stresses the stresses the importance of Pakistan’s parliamentary elections on Monday, which will determine if the U.S. ally will move towards democracy or authoritarianism… Paul Wiseman of USA Today suggests that this exercise of democracy could result in the weakening of President Pervez Musharraf’s hold on the country…Thus, Wiseman reports that the United States stands to lose as well in the election.

If Barak is right, that faith is misplaced.

Second, the election is not going to be free and fair; the bar is a credible election. I think credible means an outcome that does lot lead to more chaos than currently exists.

We can make reasonable assumptions about the outcome of this election. The important question is how key actors - the Taliban, those calling themselves Taliban, the military, an enraged public - will respond in the aftermath.3

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