Benazir Bhutto killed in Pakistan

[Breukelen advocaat]

Not true. She was accused of these things, and more, by other governments and observers outside of her own country. Her own niece has written articles condemning her. She was taking advantage of a bad situation, and was very good at portraying herself as a martyr. As her's was the only government in the area of the Middle East that supported the Taliban, that's enough to make her an example of power-hungery scum who cared for nobody and nothing but herself.

[killerweed420]

She was known for being a puppet of the US government. STill did't deserve to get shot down in the street. They played a video where she said she wasn't afraid of the Islamic terrorists because Islamic law forbids attacking women. I think she was a little mistaken.

[Kid Dynamite]

she was a puppet...but she was also Pakistans only real chance for true democracy.

This is bad news.

[birdgirl73]

Not true. She was accused of these things, and more, by other governments and observers outside of her own country. Her own niece has written articles condemning her. She was taking advantage of a bad situation, and was very good at portraying herself as a martyr. As her's was the only government in the area of the Middle East that supported the Taliban, that's enough to make her an example of power-hungery scum who cared for nobody and nothing but herself.

This precisely why I used the term "distorted interpretation" earlier. Because youâ??re often missing the complete story and will draw your conclusion based on only a percentage of it. Thatâ??s nothing new here, but itâ??s always a little hard to debate someone whose conclusions donâ??t factor in the concept that political positions, like world events, change over time. Same way you donâ??t factor in the larger picture on so many other issues from politics to history to children to parental responsibilities.

Early on, a lot more people than Bhutto thought the Taliban had some hope for stabilizing Afghanistan, which had been at war with Russia for so long and which those closer to the situation in the Middle East thought could be positively molded by support and influence from Pakistan and could then improve the trade situation in and out of Pakistan and all over that northeastern part of the world above them. There were plenty of senators and foreign policy experts in America who thought this exact same thing and early on, our very own government seems to have helped with funding of the madrasahs that supplied them. Support of the early Taliban was an even more common belief among European statesmen.

They were wrong, obviously. Everyone with sense soon realized the error of their ways when they saw the Talibs were abusing human rights at unprecedented rates and burgeoning with religious fundamentalists cultivated at the most extremist madrasahs in Pakistan. The early thoughts about the Taliban, however, were that it represented some hope for stability that hadn't been present before. Bhutto was certainly not alone in that belief.

She was, of course, much too intelligent, peace-supporting and progressive for the crazy Taliban that emerged and changed her position, like all the rest of intelligent civilization, when it became clear who they really were. She was quite vocal about her anti-Taliban position in recent years. She recently said she thought Musharaff was letting the Taliban resurge in Pakistan, which is something everyone working in military intelligence has known for well over three years (one of my oldest friends works in military intelligence in Pakistan and, before that, Afghanistan). I suspect her outspokenness helped fuel todayâ??s events and may have even been the leading contributor to her assassination.

[ldg420]

this has huge implications for the entire region...................the only Muslim nation with a nuclear weapon is now in absolute chaos...............:stoned:

[Breukelen advocaat]

How much graft and corruption is acceptable?

Bhutto Clan Leaves Trail of Corruption in Pakistan.

[Breukelen advocaat]

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/28/wo.../28bhutto.html

See audio interview, on the above link, with John F. Burns, Bhutto expert an author of the articles in the previous post,
regarding the death of Bhutto and the future of Pakistan. He also met with her very recently regarding her plans to return to Pakistan. Burns concedes that she may have successfully led the country into a better state of affairs if she had learned from the mistakes that she made during her previous unsuccessful terms in office.

[Beefer86]

Musharraf is a puppet installed by CIA. They disarmed the public and take away civil liberties in a coup style uprising. Us and our puppet Musharraf plan her death to avoid there being any competition in the upcoming "democratic elections".

[birdgirl73]

I'm glad someone bumped this thread. I'd forgotten there was a discussion I was participating in here until I saw it again.

How much graft and corruption is acceptable?

If you're asking me, then I believe none is acceptable. But I also know that's not a global reality. It's not a reality here in our own country (lobbyists and corporate influence on policy, regulating agencies, government), and it's even less a reality in many others, including the Middle East, where graft is a centuries-old practice in many governments or monarchies. Saudi Arabia and its House of Saud take the top prize. Spain and Italy, not just Sicily, have a long history of the same sorts of things. The very House of Windsor in England, while not indictable grafters, have long been living large off the income their duchies take from their country and from the auspices of both tax relief and the Civil List. Like I said, global reality.

I don't claim Bhutto was a saint. Her dad wasn't a saint, either. I do believe she was the subject of much more controversy and implications of guilt than she'd have been if she'd been of a more traditional Islamic mindset and if she'd had a Y chromosome instead of two Xs. Whatever there is to say about her, she still represented our best hope for an ally in Pakistan, she cared about peace and human rights, and she didn't deserve to be murdered by a rabid terrorist

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/28/wo.../28bhutto.html

Yes, thank you. I'm familiar with John Burns' work back before he was reporting on the Taliban and was covering the horrors in Bosnia. His Taliban stories are part of where I got my background on what I've said in earlier posts here. I'm glad to know you've read his series, too. I'm a daily subscriber to the NYTimes, and the Sunday Times is the closest thing I practice to organized religion. That and The Dallas Morning News--so I hear one conservative voice with the larger, less conservative one--and "This Week With George Stephanopoulos"--so I get to hear what the round-table participants have to say on the week's events and look at George. Nothing goes better with Sunday tea or coffee than news and public affairs.

[Nailhead]

Bhutto being killed doesn't worry me nearly as much as the insane reaction from the mass media, as if we need to do something. It's not our civil war, why in the world should we get involved?

End all funding to Pakistan, the money is being wasted by a dictator anyway. If we really supported democracy we never would be supporting a dictator anyway. Another valid reason to impeach our own dictator, Bush.