2008 Democratic primary debate, sponsored by Facebook, Jan. 5, 2008: on Foreign Policy

Bill Richardson: Ask Musharraf to step aside as Pakistan’s ruler

A: In any foreign policy decision, I would use diplomacy first. The last thing we need in the Muslim world is another action like Iraq, which is going to inflame the Muslim world. With Pakistan, here is a potentially failed nation-state with nuclear weapons. What a president must do is have a foreign policy of principles and realism. And the Bush foreign policy, with Musharraf, we get the worst of all worlds. He has not gone after Al Qaida in his own country, despite the fact that we’ve given him $11 billion. And he’s also severely damaged the constitution. He’s basically said that he is the supreme dictator. I would ask Musharraf to step aside.

Q: Ask him to step aside?

A: Yes. We have the leverage to do that. There is a provision in the Pakistani constitution for a caretaker government of technocrats. This happened when a previous prime minister died.I would send a high-level envoy to ask him to step aside.