Benazir Bhutto Killed In Attack

[jag100]

Former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto has been martyred in a suicide attack at a political rally in Rawalpindi. 20 people have also died in the explosion. There may be alot of bad things going to happen in the future because of this. Lot's of international discussions about what could turn out from this has happened and one of the views which is Russia's is about a beginnings of a civil war!

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news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,70131-1298475,00.html

So There goes the last bit of peace in that country :( .

[Midget]

this isn't really a debate now, is it?

[El Kabong]

It's fairly serious business though...unless someone wanted to go all "More like Benazir Bhutto LoL Hitler joke!"

[tehmoogles]

this isn't really a debate now, is it?

This forum is for Debates and Serious Business. I don't know about you, but I'd say that this is pretty serious.

[katt]

Meh...better hope there is not a civil war in a country with nukes.

I certainly hope nuclear weapons are not the undoing of mankind but i would not be surprised if they are

[bobfrey the great]

well somehow i don't think a civil war would use nukes. biological weapons maybe, but not nukes. also yes this is serious. Surely if no one has claimed for doing it there's no one to start a war with anyway?

[katt]

well i was referring to a scenario in which some of the nukes somehow go missing (ie taken up by terrorists) during the conflicts ..if it gets bad enough.

[malcolio]

I was actually quite shocked when I heard of this. I had an optimistic idea that the oppositional leader would oust the current dictator (he is in everything but in name, so why not give him the name?) in the next election, like at the end of a political movie, where everybody lives happily ever after. So to find out that she is dead really surprised and shocked me. I think Benazir Bhutto was the best chance of Pakistan to quickly become a stable country again, but now it's looking like Musharraf will stay in power much longer. :( So yeah, this is serious business!

[katt]

well this could go two ways: the franz ferdinand snowballing way or the no real big deal things work out ok everybody holds their crap together way.

I am going to be an optimist today as it was just christmas and say it will all work out ok. :)

[bobfrey the great]

referring to my earlier point surely there's no one to have a civil war with if no ones claiming for the attack

[katt]

There could be a backlash against Musharraf and order in general.

I think AQ probably did it just to stir things up

[alexj9]

Followers of Benazir Bhutto are going to think followers of Musharraf done the attack even if they don't claim responsibility. This is not looking good but I do hope everything works out ok. The other thing I'm worried about is if things do go wrong we might have another Iraq/afganistan stituation I certainly hope that doesn't happen.

[Roachy]

I was quite upset when I heard about the assassination. Not only was Bhutto shot but the assassin detonated himself killing and injuring many more.

This is going to spark mass outrage...

Fucking travesty. :(

[Littleshore]

This really does not bode well for the region. The allready tense situation will now surely get worse. The three next days are mourning days AFAIK, but I think there will be just as much outrage as mourning, and I don't really think there is going to be any election in January. There might be an "election" but with parties boycotting, and others without any strong leader types, it surely does not look well..

[Boyinabox]

I was quite upset when I heard about the assassination. Not only was Bhutto shot but the assassin detonated himself killing and injuring many more.

^ditto, can't really think of the last time since this that a headline has actually made me say "Oh f**k" out loud.

To be honest, I can see this really snowballing out of hand. Musharaf is going to have to do a massive clamp down on freedoms like he did after that last assassination attempt on Bhutto and the elections are almost certantly cancelled. This is just going to lead to further anger at the regieme, more attacks, further clampdowns, more anger, etc.
Personally, I doubt that this was the work of Musharaf or his supporters, he's already in enough hot water without all this. Its almost certantly the work of a fundamenalist Islamist group and I recon that this is certantly going to push Pakistan over the edge. The military has lost effective control of the northern areas of the country already, but if the more urban and moderate groups start to fight amoungst themselves then the fundimentalists can pretty much sneak into power in the chaos.

Not my most optimistic post ever. :(

[katt]

I am switching camps and becoming an optimist of sorts :)

globally things seem to keep getting worse and worse. and the terror war seems to be getting bigger in scope all the time.

2008 promises to be a dreadful year

So i have decided to be blindly optimistic. its all going to turn out ok. just like Y2K was absolutely nothing

[Zhyl]

The thing that scares me most about this is that in our Model UN in reigate the "emergency issue" this year was Bhutto's assasination (although she was stabbed and found dead in her room rather than killed in the open). The sort of stuff that was discussed then kind of hits home the seriousness of the situation we have ourselves in now.

[Darkscull]

I find myself agreeing with a theory i saw on the news that the terrorists (not just al-qaeda, there are several) who currently have pretty much easy passage over a northern part of the border with afghanistan, or at least someone sympathetic to their 'cause' did it, because one of Ms Bhutto's promises was to make it a priority to secure that area. of course, promise is far from action, so it probably wasn't as simple as that.

seeing the headline gave me (and most people who know anything about the situation there) a feeling of dread. she was definitely a possible key to solving some of the problems (although not alone, I think if she got into power things would get a bit better on the surface, but she's far from the angelic figure people portray her as. but making competition and forcing the various factions to deal on a level, almost democratic playing field).

The worst thing about this is not the fact that she is dead and can't do any good she may have done, but it's going to be the fallout from the incident. She is now a martyr, and not a self-made, responsibility-transferring 'martyr' like the suicide bomber, but a proper one. the widespread feeling that musharraf was responsible (i'm assuming it's there, it's bound to be) means that whatever he does is going to create more conflict (unless he were to step down immediately, but he'd never do that just to save lives).

It's all quite scary, and i can't think of any solution that would work in the real world.
well, the only solution i can think of would be for musharraf to step down, and the other former PM who's come back (although his party is smaller i think) to retire, and for new leaders to start afresh without the same animosity (except between the parties, but that's not as strong as it was between the personalities). that would require everyone working together to get a peaceful solution, which will never happen, because both musharraf and Bhutto just want(ed) power, but had different methods of getting and holding it.

[Dick Champion]

Awww, I'm really upset by this news, notwithstanding the political ramifications.

I was idly listening to radio 4 a few months back, around the time she returned from exile in Dubai. When she came on the radio I pricked my ears: She was wonderfully charismatic, passionate and eloquent. She aroused my interest in a country about which I knew little - there are too few politicians with the capacity to acheive that. I liked her a lot.