Seven years ago, Lula was in prison serving an unjust conviction. Today, he is the re-elected president of Brazil. In 2018, he said “there is no point in trying to end my ideas, they are already lingering in the air”. Lula’s ideas don't just linger. They live! Viva Lula!

Pro-democracy Pakistani-Americans have a critical opportunity to change the debate in DC Every American citizen who wants the US to stop supporting Asim Munir's brutal regime should write their Senator and ask them to sign WRITE YOUR US SENATOR HERE: tinyurl.com/SenateLetterFree…

America’s Favourite General: A Pakistani Service Record Pakistan’s military strongmen have perfected a peculiar job description: indispensable abroad, unaccountable at home. The foreign customer receives strategic cooperation. The Pakistani citizen receives a lecture on national security. The general receives the photograph. Yahya Khan: Opened China, Lost East Pakistan Yahya helped arrange Kissinger’s secret journey to Beijing in 1971, facilitating a historic opening between Washington and China. Meanwhile, his own rule ended in the catastrophic breakup of Pakistan and the emergence of Bangladesh. An extraordinary diplomatic service: opening communications between two foreign powers while presiding over the destruction of your own country’s union. For Washington: a bridge to Beijing. For Pakistan: a country that needed a new map. His own final chapter was not imperial grandeur. After his removal, he was placed under house arrest, suffered a disabling stroke and died in 1980. History proved considerably less accommodating than his foreign guests. Zia-ul-Haq: Democracy Suspended, Deliveries Uninterrupted Zia made Pakistan the essential conduit for the American-backed war against Soviet forces in Afghanistan. Arms and assistance could move through Pakistani channels. Democratic authority, apparently, required indefinite security clearance. Under his military regime, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was hanged in 1979. In 2024, Pakistan’s Supreme Court finally concluded that Bhutto had not received a fair trial. Justice arrived forty-five years late—an impressive delay even by the standards of a system that calls every interruption of democracy temporary. Zia died in the 1988 aircraft crash that also killed the American ambassador. Musharraf: Enlightened Moderation, Emergency Edition Musharraf supplied cooperation and logistical access for Washington’s post-9/11 war. Pakistan was once again strategically essential: a country whose usefulness abroad seemed to increase whenever its citizens’ authority at home diminished. Then Benazir Bhutto was assassinated in 2007. The UN inquiry found that his government had failed profoundly to protect her and that the subsequent investigation involved deliberate failures. That is damning enough without pretending the inquiry proved that Musharraf ordered her murder. The state could help sustain an international war. It could not adequately protect a former prime minister facing known threats. Musharraf eventually died in a Dubai hospital in 2023 after a prolonged illness, while living in self-imposed exile. No need to ridicule his sickness: the political contrast is sufficient. A man who had claimed authority over Pakistan’s future spent his final years outside it. Asim Munir: Deliverables Pending, Publicity Available Munir’s chapter comes with the familiar foreign access and the unfamiliar difficulty of producing a durable result. At home, Imran Khan’s imprisonment is not merely a controversy manufactured by his supporters. The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention found his detention arbitrary, while the UN torture mandate has raised serious concerns about prolonged solitary confinement and his treatment in custody. An awkward advertisement for international mediation: offering to help negotiate between hostile states while your entire justice system has to be shut down because of one unarmed man in a torture cell. Perhaps the next confidence-building measure could begin at home? RESIGN. And What Fate Awaits Munir? Nobody knows. A plane crash is not an argument. Illness is not a verdict. Death does not establish guilt, and no flight into the Himalayas can hide his guilt. The question is whether Munir will face accountability while it can still mean something: independent scrutiny, lawful proceedings where warranted, and a public record that spells DISASTER. No foreign compliment can settle the argument over legitimacy at home. The institutional fantasy continues @OfficialDGISPR