Gonna be a long voyage, if the Turkish example is anything to go by. While I wouldn’t stretch the analogy too far, there do seem to be a number of depressing echoes, from the history of clockwork coups to the generals’ skillful manipulation of elite/secularist fears. The WaPo article also struck a familar note WRT the deep & wide influence of the military in economic/corporate matters, although this has actually lessened somewhat in Turkey in recent decades.

That said, in Turkey the military manages to remain (discouragingly) much more popular than it seems to be Pakistan–perhaps a product of universal (male) conscription, which seems to increase people’s sense of identification with the TAF.

ps: am loving the new site design. appropriately, given this comment, this morning’s image was a top-hatted Kemal. heh.