Benazir Bhutto Dead

[Big Swami]

CNN is reporting that the former Pakistan prime minister has been assassinated after car bombs went off at one of her rallies and she was hit with either gunfire, shrapnel, or a combination of both. She had emergency surgery to try to save her but it was no use.

Hold your breath. This is REALLY scary.

[Tahoe]

So she was assassinated on what basically is a Pakistani Army base? Musharaf is going to have some splainin to do.

What a brave lady. Musharaf prolly wanted her dead, at least gone. She would have been friendly to the west so AQ prolly wanted her dead, but she would go out and walk the streets and campaign, etc. I'm not sure I'd have the balls for that.

[Big Swami]

Latest news has it that one guy shot her in the head and neck, and then blew himself up, and that was the explosion.

A few things -

• I agree with Tahoe here. This woman knew either some big change was going to come, or she was going to end up dead, or both. She risked it anyway. I don't agree with her faith in a Pakistani democratic process, but her bravery is beyond question.
  
  
• Where were the black South African suicide bombers? Where were the Tibetan suicide bombers? Where were the Chilean suicide bombers? Where were the Nicaraguan and Salvadoran suicide bombers? Nope, only Islamic people become suicide bombers. EDIT: For that matter, where were the African-American suicide bombers in the early 20th century? There weren't any.
  
  
• I really hope Bush's faith in Musharraf is well-placed. I'm having my doubts right now. This is either a case of the Army doing dirt on behalf of Musharraf, or it's yet another case of the Army holding back on terrorists so that it can get more support from the US when things go horribly wrong. Well, good going. Now the whole country is in riots and chaos. If I know Bush at all, his reaction will be something like "see? This is why we need to give more anti-terrorism funding to the Musharraf government."
  
  
• Pakistan is a bad idea altogether. A cluster of different ethnicities and lifestyles crammed together unwillingly by a military dictatorship, all in the cause of a South Asian Islamic homeland. I'd have to say the whole country has been a failure and it needs to be reconsidered.
  
  
• Pakistan is nuclear. Just thought that might make you sleep better at night.

[Tahoe]

A couple of rambling points...

Its amazing how quickly we can look past that the leader of a country is dictator, when its convenient and the dictator is friendly to our cause. I guess Bush felt Musharaf would have elections. PM was able to convince him of that. Doesn't sound like that'd be too tough of a task.

When Bhutto first came back I was a little worried, but read some on Pakistan. I thought Pak was full of ticking time bombs, but the country,or the larger cities, are full of lawyers and doctors. I don't think its as scary as I originally thought. There is a pull to go back to Taliban style rule, but don't think it will happen NOT cuz of a military but peeps not wanting it.

[Big Swami]

Tahoe - You're right that the cities are full of modern, cultured professionals. But their children! The colleges are dominated (not so much in numbers but rather by force) by hard-core young Islamic activists. It's like the Chinese Cultural Revolution in Pakistan's universities right now. The younger generation is completely caught up in this nonsense.

In the provinces, groups like AQ and others are so powerful that you basically have to ally yourself with them if you want to get anything done, and not be dead.

The government's long-standing military belligerence is a completely separate problem, that I agree with you on. The military is strongly anti-AQ, and they are very powerful in Pakistan, but they have their own problems. They cannot go into the tribal regions, where AQ is very powerful, because the tribal regions have self-rule and the government has agreements not to send troops into those regions except under certain circumstances. And obviously, the military in Pakistan is very politicized, which is a huge problem in any country. The military should keep itself as much out of the political arena as possible, or else you have things like this happening.

[Uncle Mxy]

* Where were the black South African suicide bombers? Where were the Tibetan suicide bombers? Where were the Chilean suicide bombers? Where were the Nicaraguan and Salvadoran suicide bombers? Nope, only Islamic people become suicide bombers. EDIT: For that matter, where were the African-American suicide bombers in the early 20th century? There weren't any.

The Japanese kamikaze find your lack of faith... disturbing.

[Zip Goshboots]

The Japanese kamikaze find your lack of faith... disturbing.

So do the Born Agains of the US, the NEXT most dangerous religious fucks in the world.

[Uncle Mxy]

First she was shot in the chest and neck, but now it turns out that she ducked the bullets but whacked herself in the head in the process and that is how she died. No autopsy will be performed. JFK is rumored to be spinning in his single bullet grave.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main...bhutto1228.xml

[Tahoe]

The more I thought about this the more I think she may have been wreckless. She was more important to her country, the region and maybe the world, living than dead. Its like she didn't care.

Now there is no candidate to step forward so quickly and challenge PM.

[geerussell]

While her assassination is certainly a step backwards for pakistan, I'm not so quick to canonize her. She was exceedingly corrupt and that corruption was an established family tradition and the main reason she was out of the country in "self exile" to begin with was to duck charges.

She was brave, or blinded by lust for power, or maybe a little of both. Next to Musharraf she was the lesser of two evils but not "the answer" for pakistan really by any stretch.