heeeee's outta here!

Musharraf resigns! Hallelujah! I, for one, didn't expect it. I thought for sure he'd roll up his sleeves and at least put up a good fight. I guess since he finally resigned as Army Chief last year, he no longer had quite the muscle he once possessed (and abused). This is great news for the people of Pakistan, who have been itching for new leadership and a return to democracy for years, and also for European and US leaders, who have been remarkably ambivalent both to Musharraf's extensive rule and to his ouster. I suppose they couldn't really decide if they liked him or not: after all, he was an ally (nominally, at least) in the "war on terror," and I guess he wasn't monstrous enough for us to really care about his illegitimate rule and the practices he used to maintain it. Regardless, he's finally out, and what's better is that it was the people of Pakistan and their true representatives who made it happen peacefully. This is the democratic process at work, and I hope that the new government is able to use this momentum to stabilize Pakistan economically and politically and to begin an even stronger campaign against extremist violence in the region.