Algeria addendum

When I was complaining the other day about the US not spending enough time developing a civil society in Iraq, I forgot to mention Pakistan. Wikipedia describes civil society as the "totality of voluntary civic and social organizations and institutions that form the basis of a functioning society as opposed to the force-backed structures of a state, or commercial institutions". That's a great definition, but here's a better one:

This is civil society. This is democracy. This is a lawyer in Pakistan protesting the government's tampering with elections. Those are police officers beating him. Musharraf took power in 1999, and Pakistanis have never stopped opposing him through legal challenges and peaceful protest. (More photos here)

Pakistan has an extremely well-educated population, and this is the root of their civil society. Like Algeria in 1991, Pakistan has a politically intrusive military and a collection of militarized Islamist groups. Unlike Algeria, Pakistan's strong civil society has tempered the situation by providing a middle ground and prevented these two forces from starting a civil war.

Civil society makes all the difference, and it kills me to see the US building Iraq's in Algeria's image instead of in Pakistan's.