By Mayank Chhaya,

New York, Sep 28 (IANS) Americans have a weakness for a compelling story, no matter where it comes from and who is telling it. For the past one week that story has been Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf's.

Basking in all the attentions that he is getting in the mainstream American media coinciding with the release of his memoir "In the Line of Fire" by Simon & Schuster, Musharraf has been pushing all the right buttons.

Notwithstanding that the veracity of his claims about the Kargil conflict have been derided by his detractors in India, the Pakistani leader has even managed to get a substantial appearance on The Daily Show, America's talked about nightly comedy show watched by a young demographic which shun real news shows.

Hosted by the Emmy winning comedian Jon Stewart the "fake news show" featured Musharraf on Tuesday night for nearly half of its 30 minute nightly segment. Obviously well-briefed about the irreverent nature of the show, Musharraf seemed to fit the format well.

Stewart, who is know to mercilessly skewer American politicians and other windbags, afforded Musharraf considerable levity. At one point he even asked him how he managed to stay so calm fighting terror while Americans were being so paranoid.

As part of Stewart's "Seat of the Heat" segment toward the end of the show, where guests are asked one "tough" question half in jest and half in seriousness, Musharraf was asked who he thought would win if President George Bush and Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden were to contest election in Pakistan. As questions go this was a pretty tricky one. Musharraf first smiled and then said "They will both lose miserably."

World leaders are not known to appear on Stewart's show which America's young turn to make sense of all the complexities of the world news. Although the show is entirely tongue-in-cheek, the host uses the format brilliantly to make significant points about many global issues, especially the Iraq war.

From his utterances on The Daily Show as well as elsewhere it is apparent that Musharraf joined the war on terror out of pragmatism rather than conviction. It is possible that along the way in the past five years he has developed some conviction about his decision.

It is not hard to understand Musharraf's initial reluctance, or predicament at the very least, considering the neighborhood he lives in and the kind of neighbors he chose to break bread with. Having presided over an apparatus that at the very least partially fathered the Taliban and hence by implication played a role in helping Osama bin Laden strike roots in Afghanistan, Musharraf ought to have been a deeply tormented soul in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 attacks.

Knowing what the CIA knew about the Pakistani intelligence's barely concealed involvement with the Taliban and some of the most renegade Islamists in the region, it is conceivable that the Bush administration realized that the only way to break this union between the Pakistani military headed by Musharraf and the Taliban/Al Qaeda would be to issue an unambiguous threat. It is in this backdrop that one has to read Musharraf's assertion on '60 Minutes' that Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage threatened that the US would bomb Pakistan "back to the stone age" unless it joined the war on terror.

The timing of Musharraf's disclosure was curious because although the '60 Minutes' interview was done in Islamabad, it must have been known to all concerned that excerpts from it would be aired to coincide with a visit by Musharraf to the United States. No one can accuse Musharraf of coyness when it comes to using the media to his advantage. He knew that he was making probably the most damaging allegation against a country which in many ways controls his political destiny and even personal future. Yet he chose to disclose what may or may not be true.

Armitage has denied having made the threat or at least having used those exact words. However, it is more than likely that the Bush administration leaned quite heavily on Musharraf individually to join the war on terror or else. Musharraf himself said that a "wounded superpower" could have carried out the threat.

What is astonishing is the turn of events after President George Bush and Musharraf met on last Friday. During their joint news conference Bush professed complete ignorance about the threat and Musharraf surpassed himself by citing his commitment to his publisher. Talk about the Pakistani leader craftiness to get away with murder! It is possible that during their one-on-one meeting Bush asked, probably even demanded of, Musharraf to drop the subject altogether.

Musharraf's skill to separate and insulate himself from a large number of egregious actions on his watch, from fostering the Taliban to let Dr. A Q Khan run a veritable retail operation in nuclear proliferation, is not just remarkable, it is breathtaking.

It seems the more they discover Musharraf's brazenness the more they extol him. Purely from a cynical standpoint, Musharraf deserves to be celebrated for turning his country's complicity in incubating terror as the world knows it into a valiant personal fight against it at the risk of losing his own life.

For the average American it hardly matters whether Musharraf's grandiosity has any basis in truth as long as it remains a good yarn.