A Shah of Iran-type situation could result if we enrage the Pakistani populaceAs y’all know, the Prime Directive of Star Trek is non-interference in the internal affairs of an alien civilization. But America’s foreign policy apparatus, whether military or diplomatic, never bought into that hippie-dippy Roddenberry crap. The Prime Directive of our realpolitik is simple: any foreign intervention must accrue to the benefit of the United States.

That’s why what Dubya, Cheney and State are up to in the aftermath of the Pakistani election is so dangerous for America. They’re trying to place a finger on the scale after the fact to salvage their $10B investment in the strongman of Islamabad. Like any bad gambler, they don’t yet understand that it’s a sunk cost. Fully faltu. Doodh under the bridge.

Fresh from getting Benazir killed, the American ambassador summoned the PPP and leaned on them to ally with Musharraf’s trounced PML-Q rather than Nawaz Sharif. In between naachifying with Liberians, Dubya placed a mid-air phone call to Zardari and raised the possibility of taking away our marbles. We don’t know what was said, but we know Zardari placed his bet with Pakistani voters, announcing he would instead work with Sharif’s PML-N party.

Still el Vice Presidente, the Dark Lord of Number One Observatory Circle, persists. And now that the stated interests of the Dubyans are so publicly and inconveniently misaligned with the interests of average Pakistanis, our foreign policy apparatus is putting America at risk. We’re now at the point where the new government of Pakistan is starting to look like it could be wholly a creation of the United States. It’s becoming clearer and clearer that it isn’t just a matter of Pakistanis not getting their own shit together as a democracy, or tolerating yet another military strongman, but rather the U.S. bulling its way into domestic politics. A Shah of Iran-type situation could result if we enrage the Pakistani populace, where we are seen as less the hand-that-feeds than the malicious foreign hand. What effective counterinsurgency needs is to dry up support for Al Qaeda and the Taliban in tribal areas of Pakistan — not to embitter the host populace against the United States.

There’s apparently no limit to the crises Dubya intends to plunge is into before term limits consign his administration to the mausoleum of history. At 19% approval, he’s the least popular American president in history, and one of the few leaders even less popular than Musharraf. Misery loves company, and spreadsheets full of grease.

Previously: Cheney my father (updated)