The whole world must have watched with interest the nail-bitingly close presidential election in the United States, but here in Pakistan it was followed with quite some concern.

Being the most important frontline state in the American ‘War Against Terrorism,’ Pakistan had much at stake in the outcome of the presidential election. The man on the street, however, had no liking for either of the two candidates.

To him, both President George W. Bush and the Democratic challenger Senator John Kerry were anti-Muslim.

With Senator Kerry promising to become a “stronger Commander-in-Chief” if he was elected to office, the common man in Pakistan had resigned himself to the re-election of President Bush as a lesser evil.

Col. Riaz Jafri (Retd.),

Rawalpindi, Pakistan