Bhutto assassinated

[Bill Glasheen]

I'm not exactly sure when this happened, but it is way more than sad.

Pakistan's Bhutto assassinated

By Zafar M. Sheikh and Paul Wiseman, USA TODAY

RAWALPINDI, Pakistan — Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was killed in suicide attack after a campaign rally here, dashing hopes for a smooth transition to democracy in this troubled country.

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Police said a suicide bomber fired shots at Bhutto as she was leaving the rally venue in a park before blowing himself up.

"The man first fired at Bhutto's vehicle. She ducked and then he blew himself up," said police officer Mohammad Shahid.

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A two-time prime minister, Bhutto returned to Pakistan in October after eight years in self-imposed exile, defying death threats from the Islamic fundamentalists she opposed.

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She also was an outspoken opponent of the Pakistan's powerful military, which overthrew and executed her father in the mid-1970s.

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Benazir Bhutto was one of the few beloved people of Pakistan who had the vision to bring this country to a real democracy and the cahones to take on the 7th-century Islamic fundamentalist fascists. To say she was a courageous leader doesn't quite capture the phenomenon.



Perhaps her martyrdom will bring good to the region.

In the mean time, I believe many beloved and innocent will have to lose their lives before the people of each and every civilized country take the fight up with their own hand, hearts, and souls. This is the 21st century Hitler, and it will take more than appeasement to defeat it.

Talk politics and policy all you want. But this is real and evil, and it won't go away on its own.

- Bill

[Bill Glasheen]

When I saw this photo which speaks volumes ...



... I couldn't help but think of another classic moment in time.



Human grief and political tragedy are unfortunately timeless. And the words this second tragedy evoked are eerily poignant today.

Daylight again, following me to bed
I think about a hundred years ago, how my fathers bled
I think I see a valley, covered with bones in blue
All the brave soldiers that cannot get older been askin' after you
Hear the past a callin', from Armegeddon's side
When everyone's talkin' and none is listenin', how can we decide?

(Do we) find the cost of freedom, buried in the ground
Mother earth will swallow you, lay your body down

Find the cost of freedom, buried in the ground
Mother earth will swallow you, lay your body down

- CSNY


- Bill

[Glenn]

This news broke at 7:00am this morning central time and they were saying she had died just a few minutes before. The attack had happened sometime earlier and she was rushed to a hospital where she died while being treated. For reasons unknown she had stood up through the sunroof of her bullet-resistant car to wave to people lining the street for her, a particularly bold move given the potential for violence against her and the fact that she was in a region of Pakistan generally unfriendly to her, and then the attack took place. The reports mentioned she had been shot in the neck after the explosion, but based on what Bill posted above the shooting seems likely to have occurred before the explosion. I'm sure the details will work themselves out, but regardless an important leader in the region is gone.

[Glenn]

The official version being released is that it was the shot to the neck that killed her:
http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/1 ... index.html

Pakistan's former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was assassinated Thursday after addressing a large gathering of her supporters.

Bhutto died of a gunshot wound to the neck, the Pakistani Interior Ministry said. The attacker then blew himself up. The bomb attack killed at least 22 others, doctors said.

Video of the scene just moments before the explosion showed Bhutto stepping into a heavily guarded vehicle to leave the rally.

John Moore, a photographer for Getty Images, said Bhutto was standing through the sunroof of her vehicle, waving to supporters, when two shots rang out.

Bhutto fell back into the vehicle, and almost immediately a bomb blast rocked the scene, sending twisting metal and shrapnel into the crowd, he added.

Police sources told CNN the bomber, who was riding a motorcycle, blew himself up near Bhutto's vehicle.

Bhutto was rushed to Rawalpindi General Hospital -- less than two miles from the bombing scene -- where doctors pronounced her dead.

[Glenn]

From the same link, some of the political posturing in the aftermath:

Chaos erupted at the hospital when former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif arrived to pay his respects to Bhutto less than three hours after her death.

Hundreds of Bhutto supporters crammed into the entrance shouted and cried, some clutching their heads in pain and shock. Sharif called it "the saddest day" in Pakistan's history. "Something unthinkable has happened," he said.

Sharif said his party will boycott Pakistan's January 8 parliamentary elections in the wake of the assassination.

President Pervez Musharraf said the killers were the same extremists that Pakistan is fighting a war against, and announced three days of national mourning.

[AAAhmed46]

She was no saint, she was as corrupt as any pakistani politician, which is really really corrupt.

This is still pretty horrible, on many levels.


Secondly: This is scary as hell, when assassins have that easy access to important Pakistani political figures. What will happen when someone decides to give Musharraf the same treatment? Islamic revolution? Anti-western dictator? Not happy prospects for western interests in the region.

Screw Sharif

Screw Musharaff

Screw Bhutto

and everyone else.

Pakistani politics is frustrating.

[Gene DeMambro]

Musharaff has been the target of at least three assassination attempts. But, youa re right. What will hapen if someone gets to him? An anti-Wetern, Islamofascist government, to be sure.

Gene

[Bill Glasheen]

There was discussion about this on the news today. Bhutto HAD to take risks.

Because of her

• Harvard and Oxford education,
• extremely strong anti-Islamofascist stance,
• extended self-imposed exhile,
• her strong support of democracy,

she was perceived by some to be a puppet of the west. And because of her beliefs, she felt it necessary to expose herself to the public - a politician of "the people."

The youngest of her children was 15. Her father was killed by the former military regime. Basically she felt it was her duty to take big risks and try to achieve the unachievable.

She likely knew she would be martyred. But then like her father, she quite possibly could achieve even more in her death than she could as a living political leader.

Corrupt? Everyone in these countries is "corrupt." How the hell else are you going to get anything done with so many warring parties?

No, she wasn't perfect. But IMNSHO, she was the best leader they had - and have.

- Bill

[mhosea]

I'll be the first to admit I don't know much about her, but I listened to her on TV on several occasions, including before when she was in power, and I liked her.