I know that calling Iran the next Iraq is all the rage right now, but allow me to paint a historical picture for you. 

Travel back in time, if you will, to the 1980's.  Saddam Hussein was still alive and leading Iraq.  We were friendly with Iran while the Shah was in power, and even sent military equipment to Iran.  Then the revolution took place, and the Ayatollah took power in Iran.  Hussein was still a military dictator who ruled with an iron fist in Iraq, but because we feared an Islamic theocracy more than a military dictatorship, and because Saddam said he'd help us with Iran, we helped prop up his regime, and gave him weapons and money. 

The old adage that the enemy of my enemy is my friend proved true, even though that country was also our enemy ideologically.  It didn't matter how horrible Hussein was.  In one of our more foolish gambits with RealPolitik, we dealt with the devil and got nothing from it.  The irony of course is that several years later we went to war with Iraq (and then again more than a decade after that), but Iran is still an Islamic theocracy.

So what does this have to do with Pakistan?  Pakistan is also a military dictatorship.  Oh yes, I know that Musharraf has "resigned" his military commission.  But in a flash of coincidence that everyone should find suspicious, less than two months after that resignation, one of the most outspoken opponents of his leadership was assassinated by "terrorists".  His country is also no friendly democracy, and the people there are oppressed in many ways.  But, Musharraf is playing it smart, and just like Hussein he is promising to "help" fight our enemy.  But instead of Iran, this time it's terrorists.  And so we send him money and arms, and help prop up his regime.

Unlike Iran, Pakistan actually has nuclear weapons, and some of it's scientists have been accused of selling that technology to other parties, including the possibilities of terrorists.  And what gains in the War on Terror has Pakistan helped us with?  It sounds as if elements within that government are doing just as much to stunt the war and protect the terrorists along the border with Afghanistan.

And yet, we continue to support that nation, and help prop up a dictatorship.  Why?  Because the enemy of my enemy is my friend, even when they too are my enemy.  And what will happen in 5 or 10 years?  Will India be the next Kuwait?

Have we learned nothing?