Musharraf Quotes Lincoln, Again (as he had done in 1999)

Toward the end of his speech to the nation in Urdu, Musharraf switched to English, to address his friends in the West, especially the United States, the European Union, and the Commonwealth. In defending his action he quoted from Abrah am Lincoln's April 4, 1864 letter to Albert G. Hodges:

"I did understand however, that my oath to preserve the constitution to the best of my ability, imposed upon me the duty of preserving, by every indispensable means, that government – that nation – of which that constitution was the organic law. Was it possible to lose the nation, and yet preserve the constitution? By general law life and limb must be protected; yet often a limb must be amputated to save a life; but a life is never wisely given to save a limb. I felt that measures, otherwise unconstitutional, might become lawful, by becoming indispensable to the preservation of the constitution, through the preservation of the nation. Right or wrong, I assumed this ground and now avow it."

Musharraf must really identify with Abraham Lincoln, and the body limb analogy; in his October 1999 speech he had also quoted Lincoln without naming him:

"My dear countrymen. The choice before us on 12th October [1999] was between saving the body - that is the nation, at the cost of losing a limb - which is the Constitution, or saving the limb and losing the whole body. The Constitution is but a part of the nation therefore I chose to save the nation and yet took care not to sacrifice the Constitution. The Constitution has only been temporarily held in abeyance. This is not martial law, only another path towards democracy. The armed forces have no intention to stay in charge any longer than is absolutely necessary to pave the way for true democracy to flourish in Pakistan."

It is interesting that Musharraf quotes Lincoln so frequently. In those days in the US, "moderate" Americans like Abraham Lincoln supported slavery, while "extremists" were against it. In this letter Lincoln explains why he had abandoned moderation and become an extremist! Perhaps Musharraf should have gone on to quote the near final lines of this letter: "I claim not to have controlled events, but confess plainly that events have controlled me."

Postscript: On April 15, 1865, a few days over a year later Abraham Lincoln was shot dead by an assassin.