Comments on: Benazir Bhutto

By: chipsmydog

chipsmydog — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 03:17:08 +0000

Oh yeah, I see the light now. If onlt the United States didn’t exist we wouldn’t have the international problems we are dealing with. Or at the very least the U.S. should obviously never get involved with issues that are beyond the continental shelf. Then all these pesky wars and angry religious fanatics or just plain rude people would be happy to live at peace within their own internationally agreed upon borders.
Lets go back to who was hell bent on developing nuclear weapons during WWII and by the grace of God we beat them to the punch because of defectors fleeing ego maniacal, devil invoking psycopaths. Obviously the U.S. has to be condemned for trying to….what?….wanting to rid the world of every freedom hating, oppressive regime. GUILTY AS CHARGED.

By: Lester

Lester — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 01:27:51 +0000

Peter - as we are seeing today with Iran, there is not much we can do to prevent a country from going nuclear. Most countries that have wanted to develop nuclear weapons, have.

That said, we helped spur the nuclear arms race on the Indian subcontinent and now, like many of our ventures in that area (as well as the Middle East), it is coming back to bite us.

By: Joel Mark

Joel Mark — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 23:27:47 +0000

I read a Mona Charen article today which said:

“The next to last assassination attempt on Benazir Bhutto came on Dec. 13, when a man in the crowd got the former prime minister’s attention. He was holding a 1-year-old baby — Bhutto said later she thought it was a girl — and tried to hand the child across the sea of bodies. Bhutto said, “He kept trying to hand it to people to hand to me. I’m a mother. I love babies. But the [streetlights] had already gone out and I was worried about the baby getting dropped or hurt.” So she turned away and ducked into her armored vehicle. Just then, the baby’s body, rigged with explosives, detonated.”

That’s what we are dealing with in the Middle East with Islamofascist jihadists.

Bhutto represented a modernizing movement within the Islamic world and thus was seen as a threat by the militant Islamists who make lethal “baby bombs.”

By: Joel Mark

Joel Mark — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 17:44:32 +0000

Michael Martin,

Your points at #8 are well made and well taken.

By: Peter Leavitt

Peter Leavitt — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 17:22:42 +0000

It’s clear now that Benazhir Bhutto was involved in a madcap adventure to retake power in Pakistan. There is a fine line between courage and foolishness; this lady crossed it including the sun-roof bit. It’s, also, clear that, though educated in the West at Harvard and Oxford, she ruled in the classic personal oriental style including lining her Swiss accounts variously estimated at about $1.5 billion.

In terms of American vital interests we need to focus on alQuaeda’s growingly successful effort to destabilize Pakistan. It’s not at all clear that Musharaf is in firm control of either the military or intelligence.

Victor Davis Hanson today on NRO writes that:

The greatest diplomatic lapse in the last quarter-century was the allowance of Pakistan to go nuclear in 1998, in part due to the failures of the CIA (over three administrations) and the distractions and lack of consistency in dealing with the final stages of this crisis by the distracted Clinton administration.

Pakistan is becoming close to a failed state, which is exactly one of alQuaeda’s chief present objectives. Americans need to look on the consequences of this with clear eyes.

Americans need to view Pakistan with clear eyes and pay attention to the hard realities.

By: Michael Martin

Michael Martin — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 17:15:47 +0000

Joel (#4),

I agree that the actual perpetrators are in the “minority.” However, the word “minority” becomes almost meaningless when the reality is millions among a billion plus. There is obviously something wrong with a system that can produce such an engulfing and evil “minority.” Just at the “minority” cannot be dismissed, neither can the system that spawned it.

The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) web site gives the western world access to worldwide, domestic Muslim media with english sub-titles. This unsanitized view of the Muslim world shows the reality in their own words: Islam is NOT a religion of peace. From their leadership to the billion+ multitudes that follow them, the seeds of violence and death are engrained in the very fabric of their religion.

By: Sawgunner

Sawgunner — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 16:18:39 +0000

WND had a piece wherein an Israeli political campaign security man reviewed the video of Bhutto’s final moments. He was not at all impressed.
Come to think of it, an open sunroof is an invitation to a hand grenade, no??

By: StuBob

StuBob — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 16:17:51 +0000

The “cult of death” Islamofascist factions of Islam are in the minority.

This is a comforting thought. Is it true? We may never know, as the doctrine of dar al-Islam keeps them from leveling with us about each other. Blood’s thicker than water, ya know?

By: Sawgunner

Sawgunner — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 16:16:57 +0000

Already some AlQaeda bigwigs are congratulating their Pakistan affiliates. Were the US ever to experience the return of a comparable leader from overseas (self-chosen) exile, I want to believe that protection/personal security would be extended to that person as we do with even the most fruit-loop fringe candidates here in the USA.
I suspect we are in a real quandary. We cannot condemn Musharaf for not putting more protective restrictions on Bhutto’s movemt. I foresee in the unstable nations attempting democracy a move to use videoteleconferences to reach constituents (”So veddy sorry I cannot be there with you in person!”)
The ill-advised choice to wave from the open sunroof of her SUV was certainly chillingly reminiscent of the open convertible motorcade in Dallas.
Will this change anything? We will continue to funnel zillions in military aid to Karachi. They will in turn spend it helping coreligionists in Kashmir or otherwise fortifying themselves against their non-existent threat from India. Money we give Pakistan should be earmarked for ferreting out Taliban in the mountainous border regions and shutting down the Islamic home-school madrassas. O for a secularizing modernist strongman like Mustapha Kemal Ataturk!

By: Joel Mark

Joel Mark — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 16:02:50 +0000

The “cult of death” Islamofascist factions of Islam are in the minority. But the majority of moderate Muslims are far too often willing to enable and appease the radical jihadists in their midst. And in return for this, the main target of the jihadist extremists has become fellow Muslims who they deem to be too moderate.