Former President Pervez Musharraf has underlined his ambitions to return to Pakistan to contest elections in 2013, casting himself as a tested politician who can turn around the country's dire economic problems. "There's an even chance of me succeeding," he said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal published Saturday. Musharraf pointed toward his 350,000 "fans" on the social-networking portal Facebook as testimony to his popularity among young voters. Likewise, his ability to raise $3 million for the victims of this summer's flooding in Pakistan speaks to his reach, he claimed. Musharraf, who is a speaking tour of the United States, insisted that Pakistan is a reliable partner in the war against al-Qaeda and the Taliban, despite concerns in the U.S. The newspaper referred what it called "solid economic growth" his rule, saying, "Mr. Musharraf is betting his administration's economic record, and declining ratings for President Asif Ali Zardari's administration amid the economic crisis, will help propel him back to power." "Now that Pakistan is in turmoil, the people of Pakistan remember what they had," Musharraf was quoted as saying in WSJ. "They want a viable alternative." "I'm prepared to go back," said Musharraf, who lives in London. "When I've created a certain environmentand before the next electionI will go back." He pointed out there is no legal case against him and that both the country's Supreme Court and National Assembly backed his constitutional changes at the time. "They don't want me to come back and enter politics. But I know that there's no case." "Part of his strategy is to hit the campaign trail in the U.S. and the U.K., where there is a large Pakistani diaspora," the newspaper said. On his current U.S. trip, Musharraf said he has visited seven cities. Musharraf said the rise of militancy is a consequence of the war in Afghanistan, stretching back to the Soviet invasion three decades ago, and Pakistan is a victim. He said that 2,500 Pakistani soldiers have died fighting the Pakistan Taliban, including 300 officers from the Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate, the military spy agency which the U.S. has blamed for supporting elements of the Taliban. "I don't think Pakistan is the problem. Pakistan is the victim of whatever has been happening over the past 30 years," he said. "Pakistan is fighting against the Taliban and al-Qaeda in its own interests." He said dealing with some parts of the Taliban, who draw their fighters largely from ethnic Pashtun living on either side of the border, is a necessity to achieve peace. Musharraf pointed out that the U.S. has recently backed peace talks between the Taliban and Afghan President Hamid Karzai's government. But he termed President Barack Obama's decision to set a deadline for starting a troop drawdown in Afghanistan "a mistake." First, the U.S. needs to be in a dominant military position. And the U.S. also needs to ensure that Pashtuns, the largest ethnic group in Afghanistan, have a fair stake in Karzai's government, which is not the case now, he said. On U.S. drone strikes, Mr. Musharraf acknowledged they had killed senior militants in the tribal regions. But he called them a "double-edged weapon" because they also cause civilian deaths and are resented by many Pakistanis.