Mail Call: A Turbulent Time

Members of Germany's 1968 generation, males in particular, are a special breed, not really comparable with their counterparts in the rest of Western Europe or the United States. Their fathers, while busy rebuilding a country largely in ruins, would rarely come up with satisfactory answers when asked about their own roles in the Third Reich and World War II. Sons, perhaps more than daughters, grew suspicious of what might lie behind their fathers' prolonged silence, taking it for complicity in the regime's innumerable crimes. In many ways, their history teachers at school weren't much help either, most of them having gone through traumatic wartime experiences but are still incapable of coming to terms with the past, let alone opening up about it. Hence the younger generation's often incredibly skewed assessment of contemporary politics and their conviction that the United States, after what had happened in Vietnam, was little better than Hitler and his barbarous henchmen.
Werner Radtke
Paderborn, Germany

Enough with all the boomer worship! Many editors at NEWSWEEK must be boomers. And you'd like to think that if you weren't the greatest generation, then you were the coolest. Sure, boomer Zeitgeist sells, but what about those of us in our 30s and 40s—your readership for the next few decades? And, no, I'm not asking for articles on how amazing Gen-Xers are. I'm just saying all the articles on how great the '60s were are exhausting.
Sara Weinstock
Honolulu, Hawaii

What Will Happen Next in Pakistan?
Gen. Pervez Musharraf has always found a way out of situations that threatened his position of power, surviving each time a crisis stared him in the face ("Pakistan's Pinstripe Revolution," Nov. 19). This time, too, he had to play the state-of-emergency card as a survival strategy in order to circumvent an inconvenient judiciary. Now that he has agreed to return to civilian rule, skepticism remains as to whether he would readily accept a backseat position after arrogantly enjoying absolute power for eight long years. You can't turn a dictator with scant respect for democracy into a democrat overnight. Although the road map to democracy in Pakistan, prepared by the United States, appears to be a workable proposition, nothing can guarantee its success given Musharraf's recent blunders. Political analysts term Musharraf the best bet for Pakistan, but the general's support in his country has declined. Since siding with the United States after 9/11 he has considered himself to be on top of everything, and has completely forgotten that he needs the support of his people to keep things in check inside his fragile country. Shouting democracy from the rooftops is different from actually implementing it; for that you need to build democratic institutions. Musharraf has destroyed what little of these existed. Worse, almost all his decisions regarding taking on the terrorists militarily have ended in either complete failure or without much success. Such a record does not reflect well on someone who sports the label of ally in the so-called global War on Terror. And the situation inside Pakistan has become so volatile that the United States may find it difficult to prop up Musharraf much longer.
R. K. Sudan
Jammu, India

Fareed Zakaria has, in effect, written off General Musharraf for declaring a state of emergency. I don't disagree with what Zakaria said about Pakistan. But the sickness that ails Pakistan is such that a state of emergency was the right treatment for the illness—at least at that moment. No politician in Pakistan can stand up to what the nation faces: Islamic fundamentalism, terrorism, jihadism, corruption, lawlessness and strident intolerance of others' opinions that borders on violence, combined with poverty and illiteracy. The utter desperation in which many citizens find themselves is making them support Benazir Bhutto. But she has also failed in the past, and the (now withdrawn) corruption charges against her show where she will lead the country should she succeed in gaining power again. The external tensions that face the nation in the region mean that the right thing is to support the general. The violent elements inside and outside Pakistan understand only the law of the gun—not democracy, the rule of law and elections. The most that can be expected now is for the general to bring peace to the country first, and then to gradually talk democracy.
Bhanudas N. Nadpurohit
Dombivli, India

For Fareed Zakaria to say that Musharraf has "no roots" is incorrect. His roots are firmly tied to the White House, which is bent on supporting a ruthless, resourceful dictator who has shot to shreds all norms of civilized conduct. If Musharraf's emergency proclamation, which gave the Army chief of staff the power to suspend the Constitution and the power of the judiciary, were to become a precedent, then we might consider a scenario in which the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff appears on TV, suspends the U.S. Constitution and sends the Supreme Court packing. One wonders why the International Court of Justice, which often takes up cases against deposed dictators, keeps a stony silence when self-serving dictators assume such totalitarian power as to crush the judiciary and muzzle the press.
Parvez Ali
Karachi, Pakistan

Pervez Musharraf, even without a uniform, will continue to connive to hold power. He has done unprecedented damage to the national polity and the rule of law over the last eight years. He started with the Kargil fiasco as Army chief and illegally usurped power by a coup d'?tat against the constitutional prime minister, which was tantamount to treason. He has sustained his power under the tutelage of George W. Bush, by partnering with the president's so-called War on Terror in Afghanistan and now in Pakistan. However, Musharraf's ignominious actions of late—imposing emergency rule, installing his supporters as justices on the court and restricting the media—make an election seem farcical.
Abdullah Mehdi Mohammad
Jehlum, Pakistan