Benazir Bhutto Killed in Explosion

[TheCapitalist]

Television reporting she was killed in attack. First thought not hurt. This cannot help situation in Pakistan. Any thoughts?

[Fish-Bait]

Is she the one they exiled and now she came back to run for President or something?

[eyescene]

I don't know anything about all that but could you please link it.

[Fish-Bait]

prolly on Fox news.....www.foxnews.com

[Fish-Bait]

yeah it's there along with Paris Hilton's awesome head shot...wow...she is smokin' hot trashy....

[Queen Mother]

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/12/27/pakistan.sharif/index.html

Bhutto Assasinated in explosion.

[bpitt]

It's a shame. She was really trying to push for a more democratic government. However, one cannot take out of context the whole scenario. One must look at the 'big picture'. She was a woman, in a strongly male dominated society, speaking out against such males and the government. Thus, she was a target for many. However, there are many who supported her, both women and men. It's sad. I'm not saying that the 'big picture' is correct, i.e., males dominate everything, I'm just saying that that was the scenario, and still is.

[eyescene]

and still is!

[Fish-Bait]

I dominate!

[eyescene]

In America I believe that to be a good thing but over there I do not. Yes Men still rule here but I believe that is correct way God wanted it.

Thank goodness you all do not treat us as second class because you do so.

[Queen Mother]

Bush to speak at 11:00 EST. Because Pakistan is such a key player in the fight against terrorism, this volatile situation is crucial to America.

[Fish-Bait]

Man, those are some rough pics on Fox.....jeeeeeez.

[Queen Mother]

The Bhutto family in Pakistan is much like the Kennedy family in America. Her assasination is being equalled to JFK's assasination. Two of her brothers were assasinated - one in Europe and one in Pakistan. There will be national mourning. She had a popularity percentage of more than 65% in the country.

The rally was near the military center in Pakistan - much like our Pentagon. Questions are now focused on infilitration of low-level military as a possibility.

[Hawkeye]

I told my squaw over a month ago that Bhutto would be assassinated. She had bigger nads than most men. This hit could have been ordered by Al Qaeda or Mussarif.

[eyescene]

All that Pakistan stuff does not sound good!!

[SoMissTV]

Regrettable, but not unforeseeable.

[eyescene]

President on now!

[Goobersmooch]

they KNEW it would happen...

and so did she when she came back

she may have had a 65% approval rating but hte other 35% absolutely hated her guts and would do anything in the world to destroy her ideals

[BassCatter]

I am afraid of what this vacuum of reason will do to this nuclear power.

[TheCapitalist]

Much unrest now after the fact. Burnings and riots. Musharraf stuck his own neck out for us in the war on terror. The situation was tenuous before all this. She had returned and was expected to do well in the upcoming election. Very popular. have not heard bush's speech.

[TheCapitalist]

More info on world leaders reactions here:

http://www.washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071227/FOREIGN/188367099/1003


The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said Pope Benedict XVI was immediately informed of the "terrible news."



"One cannot see signs of peace in this tormented region," Lombardi said.


So true...

[bpitt]

Did I hear that Al Qaeda has claimed responsibility?

[bpitt]

Here's a quote from an online conservative website's news article.....

""We terminated the most precious American asset which vowed to defeat (the) mujahadeen," Mustafa Abu Al-Yazid told Adnkronos International in a phone call from an unknown location.

Al-Yazid is the main al-Qaida commander in Afghanistan. The decision to assassinate Bhutto is believed to have been made by al-Qaida's No. 2 leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri, according to the news agency.

[Queen Mother]

http://www.newsweek.com/id/82153/

A Newsweek analyst says that he is "certain" that this is al-Qaida's responsibility.

[TheCapitalist]

Many have speculated on al-Qaida's role. Non know as of now.

Turned on NBC at 7:05. Matt Lauer was doing an interview, and says,"No matter who is responsible, this is a great victory for terrorism." That was the precise moment i turned the tv off. Putting on steel toes, going to work.
Never, ever will or have you yet seen them speak of a victory by the US in ANY facet of the war on terror. In their minds, any success on our part is redefined as only making it worse, or them hate us more, etc.
The media and most people truly do not grasp the seriousness of the situation. I guess only after this becomes a regular occurance here in the US will some people wake up. probably not.

[Hawkeye]

Capt, Northern P-stan has long been a no man's land training camp for terrorists. The warlords in Peshawar get money of both sides. They are the security for OBL. The one time Musharraf sent the Paki Army to do what we've been paying them billions to do, they got their asses handed to them and they limped back south with their tails between their legs. Musharraf is scared of the northern tribal regions. When general grade officers quit or retire, that's were they go to work for the big bucks. It's the equivalent of going too work for Blackwater for them.

IMO, a few accurately placed nukes in the mountains of NE A-stan and NW P-stan would do wonders to slow down the terrorists camps but we know that ain't gonna happen cause China and Russia wouldn't stand for it. The world media would go freaking nuts. So, we need to make it look like an accident on their part ..... an experimental bio or chem WMD experiment gone wrong, perhaps .... you know, something that will get down in those ant hill mountain fortresses that are truly built like Cheyenne Mountain.

[CircusRide]

Screw it! There's never going to be peace over there. I can't understand why people think that can be changed. Ain't going to happen.
Our gas prices are going up regarless. I just hope we can still get those fantastic knives made in Pakistan...

[Hawkeye]

Screw it! There's never going to be peace over there. I can't understand why people think that can be changed. Ain't going to happen.
Our gas prices are going up regarless. I just hope we can still get those fantastic knives made in Pakistan...
Well, you 'bout right, but if and when OBL gets his hands on those Paki-nukes, he'll use them to start a bigger conflagration that will sure change things. Those sick bastards really do want to see an end to the world and mankind in their living days.

[eyescene]

Welcome CircusRide

[Goobersmooch]

i agree to an extent

which is why we need to act with pure unadulterated force and stop nation building

bomb their asses back to the stone ages every time they peek above the rocks

but...im not for eroding american civil liberties while we do it

[Queen Mother]

I get nervous thinking what would happen if those nukes got in bin-Laden's hands. And how close are we to that happening? I fear closer than we would want to admit. WWIII is still looming in my opinion - and it will all be because al-Quaeda and the Taliban keep getting away with 'stepping it up a notch.'

[Guru]

Screw it! There's never going to be peace over there. I can't understand why people think that can be changed. Ain't going to happen.
Our gas prices are going up regarless. I just hope we can still get those fantastic knives made in Pakistan...

* Well well, glad to see you say something finally. I thought maybe you had gotten shy on us, :D.
Glad to see you here and all working.

[bpitt]

Damn straight.

[CircusRide]

I think that's our excuse for blowing OBL off the map. If we can show he's got the weapons, we can blow the hills of Paki off the map for good. Or better yet, let India do it.

[TheCapitalist]

I do agree on the sentiment that there will never be peace there. Between the factions and religious zealots, that is too many people with nothing better to do than kill each other and us. There are many in the region that would not hesitate to kill you for your beliefs, nationality, religion, ethnicity, or whatever. Radical Islam is rampant in Africa also.

To quote the late prime minister of Israel, Golda Meir, "Peace will come to the Middle East when the Arabs love their children more than they hate us."

As quoted in Media Bias and the Middle East (2003) by Paul Carlson, p. 10

You know, here it is for me. It is not for me to know why a murderer is a murderer. It is enough that i know it. We all from time to time, when we see a heinous crime, murder, etc. (Jeff Dahmer, for example), wonder why. Why or how could someone do this? Well i think it is a futile waste of brainpower.
Boil it down to this. I don't have to be a foreign policy expert. If i know a dog next door will bite me if i put my hand thru the fence, that is all i need to know. I have all the information necessary to act appropriately to the situation.
I do not have to psychoanalyze why the dog wants to harm me. Foolish endevour.
If someone has vowed to destroy me, then I don't need to wonder if it is because i'm american, christian, not a muslim, bush or any other administration wronged you, or whatever. It is what it is. No good to cry about how it got that way, just act accordingly.

[Queen Mother]

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/12/29/bhutto.death/index.html

They just buried Bhutto yesterday - now there's talk about exhuming her body to prove the actual cause of death. Why didn't someone determine the cause of death BEFORE they buried her? Geez!

[Queen Mother]

Bhutto's son will continue leading the political party begun by his grandfather 40 years ago. He is 19 and a new student at Oxford University.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/82403

Benazir Bhutto, the slain former Pakistani prime minister, names her 19-year-old son Bilawal as her successor and the new leader of the Pakistan Peoples Party in her will, and her husband Asif Ali Zardari is expected to act as a kind of regent to him until he comes of age, a close family friend who has read the will told NEWSWEEK on Saturday.

Neither Bilawal nor Zardari, however, is expected to be named as the prime ministerial candidate of the PPP, the friend said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter. That honor will go to a senior official, although it is not believed to be Amin Fahim, the vice chairman of the party who served as interim leader during Bhutto's eight-year exile.

[Queen Mother]

http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/12/29/henry.us.pakistan/index.html

CRAWFORD, Texas (CNN) -- What's next for the U.S. in Pakistan?

Unrest continues for a second day in Karachi, Pakistan, Saturday after the assassination of Benazir Bhutto.

That's the burning question President Bush must contemplate as he tries to get some down time for the New Year's holiday.

He has a slew of foreign policy challenges to confront in 2008 -- ranging from Iraq to Afghanistan, Iran and North Korea to name just a few.

Perhaps none is as pressing on January 1 as the unfolding crisis in the wake of the assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.

The stakes for the U.S. are enormous, from the fear of Pakistan's nuclear weapons getting into the hands of extremists to questions about whether President Pervez Musharraf is focused hard enough on the war on terror and hunting down Osama bin Laden.