Bhutto's motorcade bombed!

[Straybow]

Originally posted by LordShiva
Over 100 people killed now, according to teh BBC.

That's one big-ass bomb.

Two not-quite-so-big-ass bombs.

[Dinner]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui

about the bombings. Now saying 126 killed and 250 wounded.

Man, that must have been a huge bomb. Even if it is two bombs they must have been huge.

[Salyut]

Well Pakistan is a crowded country, so terrorists don't need a big bomb to kill a lot of people.

Bhutto is popular with the West and with secular, educated Pakistanis but not with radicals, Musharraf, the Army nor a lot of the poor. It's going to be tough for her.

[Agathon]

Originally posted by Cort Haus


I think it becomes a game. The money becomes meaningless but the fun of seeing the number grow must be like trying to milk a Civ game for high score. It's the only explaination.

Yeah, but look what happens to the people who do that. They end up posting here.

[trev]

There are very few good alternatives left to Pakistan for its future now, it needs a democracy restored with a prime minister who will battle the influence of militant Islam and Al Quaeda. Bhutto for all her faults appears the best bet for that at this stage, and for Al Quaeda to attack her and fail is the best return from exile she could have hoped for, it will increase her popularity, turn many people against the militants because although many people would condone attacks on Musharaf and his military, many of those will not condone an attack on Bhutto who is seen as representing the best chance for a return to Democracy.

[Imran Siddiqui]

An interesting editorial:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/19/opinion/19fri1.html

It’s no surprise that Benazir Bhutto’s return to Pakistan was painstakingly choreographed: She emerged from her plane in Karachi yesterday clutching a Koran and dressed in Pakistan’s national colors. Comebacks, after all, are her specialty. Since her father, Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, was executed in 1979, she’s been elected prime minister twice, deposed twice on charges of corruption and self-exiled twice. Now, at 54, she’s back for another try.

Ms. Bhutto got a swift and horrifying reminder of how close Pakistan is to the brink — and of what she’s up against — when explosions ripped through the crowds near her motorcade last night, killing scores of people.

It’s hard to see her return as a victory for democracy, especially since it is the result of a dubious deal with Gen. Pervez Musharraf that grants him another five years in the presidency. Nor is it a great triumph for the rule of law, since, in exchange for playing ball with the general, Ms. Bhutto has been handed a convenient amnesty that wipes out serious corruption charges dating back to her years as prime minister. Without that protection, she would have risked possible imprisonment by returning home.

Still, letting her back in to lead her party’s ticket in the soon-to-be-held parliamentary elections is an important step forward for a country that has been subjected to eight years of essentially one-man rule and has grown ever more polarized.

Ms. Bhutto’s greatest challenge will be to redeem this tawdry trade-off by using her popularity and skills to leverage this modest political opening into something resembling genuine democracy. Her first step should be to insist that those parliamentary elections are open to all, including her longtime political rival, Nawaz Sharif, another former prime minister. His previous tenure, like hers, was badly flawed. But they are Pakistan’s two most popular politicians, and without the participation of both of them there can be no Pakistani democracy.

Washington’s help will be crucial in this effort. For too long it has coddled General Musharraf for his supposedly stalwart policies against the Taliban and Al Qaeda. But recently, those policies have seemed scarcely more credible than his hollow promises to accept the constraints of law and democracy or his commitment to free elections.

After belatedly recognizing that the general’s misrule was dangerously strengthening, not weakening, extremist forces in Pakistan, Washington helped engineer the deal that permitted Ms. Bhutto’s return. Now, it must help her and Pakistan truly move toward democracy.

Unfortunately I don't think Bhutto is going to extend the olive branch to Sharif. She's looking for her own political health.

[Adam Smith]

From the point of view of democratic process, having Bhutto run is an improvement over Musharraf's one-man rule. Allowing Sharif to run would have been an improvement over that. But what does the world community do if Sharif wins and then says "As part of the agreement with the Islamists in my coalition, I am going to turn a blind eye to whatever happens in the NW Frontier provinces" (And Kashmir too, for that matter)? As I understand it, Sharif had already been making noises to that effect prior to his re-exile.

[Zkribbler]

Musharraf tried that, and the Taliban took over that area and is now moving into his cities.