Bhutto Dead, Murder Mayhem Ensue
Its offical, Pakistan is now poised to spiral out of control. Yesterday (I think, its sometimes hard to tell because I live in the future) Pro-democratic and anti-Islamic extremist leader Benazir Bhutto was assassinated by a suicide bomber (Bryant Park Project interview with someone who was there). BBP also has this photo of moments before the attack. All Things Considered had a far less emotional explanation of the days events from this Washington Post reporter.
This BBP blog post gives us an inside look into the murder and mayhem that took place immediately after Bhuttos assasination. Note that these are also the perfect conditions for extermists to assert control in various areas and lash out at Pro-Musharraf and moderate opponents. I want to bring your attention to this quote:
"And there was an office of PMLQ there, the Musharraf loyalist party. They just start to attack that office and kill all the people that was in there; there was three of them I think."
An Australian News Service has some exclusive footage of the bombing on youtube. Bush released a statement which has me actually agreeing with him. Right before I start pointing fingers at his administration for US policies towards the Nuclear capable Musharraf regime. DemocracyNow.org reports on the situation.
These are not the conditions that I want surrounding Pakistan's Nuclear arsenal. I must point out that this is one of the reasons that Islamic extremism thrives in Pakistan. The undemocratic Military government spends more time fighting pro-democratic moderate forces than fighting the infinitely more dangerous Islamic extremists. If Bhutto's death completely derails the pro-democratic movement, it will be the religious exteremists that will flock to fill the gap in opposing Musharraf.
My message to the Bush administration: Musharraf out of power NOW!
Its been a no brainer to me for a while, and now conditions are beginning to make the military's reign in Pakistan unacceptable to our national interests. Then again our relationship with Pakistan has been clearly unacceptable to our national interests since 9/11. DhinMI has a really good post that details the recent history of US-Pakistan relations.
It is important that we monitor the situation. Especially Musharrefs reactions. I would expect that he will use a crack down on the "terrorists" responsible as an cover to attack his moderate opponents. This is now possible as the Blogisphere, the vlogisphere and citizen journalism makes it possible to see inside Pakistan.
Even more important I would like to point out that I beat
emosnailin posting on this story.
This BBP blog post gives us an inside look into the murder and mayhem that took place immediately after Bhuttos assasination. Note that these are also the perfect conditions for extermists to assert control in various areas and lash out at Pro-Musharraf and moderate opponents. I want to bring your attention to this quote:
"And there was an office of PMLQ there, the Musharraf loyalist party. They just start to attack that office and kill all the people that was in there; there was three of them I think."
An Australian News Service has some exclusive footage of the bombing on youtube. Bush released a statement which has me actually agreeing with him. Right before I start pointing fingers at his administration for US policies towards the Nuclear capable Musharraf regime. DemocracyNow.org reports on the situation.
These are not the conditions that I want surrounding Pakistan's Nuclear arsenal. I must point out that this is one of the reasons that Islamic extremism thrives in Pakistan. The undemocratic Military government spends more time fighting pro-democratic moderate forces than fighting the infinitely more dangerous Islamic extremists. If Bhutto's death completely derails the pro-democratic movement, it will be the religious exteremists that will flock to fill the gap in opposing Musharraf.
My message to the Bush administration: Musharraf out of power NOW!
Its been a no brainer to me for a while, and now conditions are beginning to make the military's reign in Pakistan unacceptable to our national interests. Then again our relationship with Pakistan has been clearly unacceptable to our national interests since 9/11. DhinMI has a really good post that details the recent history of US-Pakistan relations.
It is important that we monitor the situation. Especially Musharrefs reactions. I would expect that he will use a crack down on the "terrorists" responsible as an cover to attack his moderate opponents. This is now possible as the Blogisphere, the vlogisphere and citizen journalism makes it possible to see inside Pakistan.
Even more important I would like to point out that I beat
emosnailin posting on this story.