Twice-serving Pakastani prime minister Benazir Bhutto was assassinated Thursday evening as she left a political rally in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. The New York Times reports that she was apparently shot several times as she was riding in a car away from the rally and then the gunman detonated a bomb killing himself and at least 20 others, and injuring 50 more. Bhutto was at a political rally only two weeks before Pakistan was to hold elections where she was leading in the polls to return to the prime minister post again.The assassination and accompanying violence has plunged this hotbed of extremist radical turmoil; President Pervez Musharraf will more than likely have to impose another state of emergency, leading to a clamp down by his former troops (he recently stepped down as the head of the military).
Read the entire New York Times article here.
plez sez: this morning, i had planned to settle down with some C-SPAN when the news broke about the apparent bhutto assassination (at the time, there was only the report of a suicide bomber at her rally), so i quickly flipped over to CNN for an update. by this time, it had been confirmed that she had been shot and a bomb had been detonated a few seconds later.
this is a sad day for the world: armed terrorists are continuing to wreak havoc in the middle east and this was another "in your face" to bush's failed war on terror. the american people were bamboozled into supporting the war in iraq under the guise of a war on terror... for the past four years, our troops have been bombing and terrorizing the WRONG PEOPLE! OSAMA BIN LADEN and his gang (al qaeda) are not in iraq, they are alive and well in afghanistan and pakistan. they have widespread support in these countries. BARACK OBAMA was castigated for his talk of sending troops into pakistan after bin laden if their government would do nothing when he becomes president... as evidenced by today's bombing, apparently, obama's intelligence is more reliable than george w. bush's!
bhutto had spoken out against the terrorists and extremists who had taken up residence in her country and was determined to eradicate them... her Fate was death. this entire region is without strong leadership and the america's presence is doing little to deter their stronghold. if these terrorist cells are not destroyed, it will only be a matter of time before we are threatened with another 9/11 with those pakistani nuclear weapons (yes, people, pakistan has nuclear weaons)! our presence in iraq is not the answer and it appears that we are four years too late to pakistan! we can only hope that the next administration can provide leadership in dealing with the terroristic threat of the middle east.
Given the ignorance of the American public on exactly who this lady was and what she represented, I just can't see anything good or lessons learned coming from her death on our end. You already have misinformation and more fear mongering out there from the Bushies. You have Fox News and right wing bloggers turning her into some sort of symbol and mode of attack and yet these same folk didn't give a damn about her before, and indeed some of the more senior clowns recall when her father was deposed and murdered--with our blessings. Never forget that the dude who killed her father was put in power to fight the Russians; as was Osama. Then they turn around and bite us in the ass.
ReplyDeleteThere is a severe danger in the countries failure to push democracy in Pakistan. Musharef has not made Pakistan safer and his dictatorship has given terrorist in the country the ability to sell themselves as freedom fighters to the Pakistani public. It seems as if every decision Bush makes is one that increases danger to the American public and to the world, I afraid of the danger that the last year of his presidency will present.
ReplyDeletei am sadden by the death of the late mrs bhutto. my mom came running out of the room the moment she heard this news. we watch the news till 2am, wondering why people are so afraid of changes. here is a voice who wanted democracy for the better life of the citizen, now that voice is silent...forever. i feel pain for her young kids.
ReplyDelete=:O(
ps: hope your xmas has been good.