Earthside Comments: When one steps back and looks at the bigger picture, you cannot help but be amazed at the total abject failure of Bush/Cheney/Republican/Dimocrat/neocon international policy since September 11, 2001.
There are now political and civil fires raging in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan ... all lit by the Bush ideology that military force solves all problems.
The Bush-Musharraf axis is such a good example of how ignorance and arrogance will eventually always backlash against those who practice such flawed behavior.
'Busharraf' could lead Pakistan and even the entire region into more chaos and bloodshed. Let's hope that the people of Pakistan (and Iraq and Afghanistan) finally find the fortitude to tell the meddling Bush-commanded military to pack-up and leave them alone to find their own destinies.
Link: Bhutto Buried Amid Mass Mourning | BBC
Tens of thousands of people have attended the funeral of assassinated Pakistani politician Benazir Bhutto.
Mourners converged on the family mausoleum where she was buried next to her father Zulfikar Ali Bhutto near their home village in Sindh province.
The coffin, draped in the flag of Ms Bhutto's party, was driven in a white ambulance through the dense crowds. ...
... Outside the triple-domed mausoleum, crowds chanted slogans blaming President Pervez Musharraf for Ms Bhutto's death.
The BBC's Owen Bennett-Jones, who is in the district of Larkana, says the mood among local people is one of anger and confusion.
Rioting and unrest has been reported across the country.
+ At least one passenger train was set ablaze in Sindh Province and a number of railway stations were reportedly burnt as security forces in the province were ordered to shoot rioters on sightOther cities across Pakistan are at a virtual standstill.+ Several people died in Karachi as government offices, police stations and vehicles were torched by rioters and police opened fire on protesters in Hyderabad
+ The office of a pro-government party was ransacked and set ablaze in Peshawar
+ In the city of Multan in Punjab province, a mob ransacked seven banks and torched a petrol station
Schools, businesses and transport are all closed, and people are reluctant to step out during the three days of national mourning declared by Mr Musharraf.
Link: Another Death in Rawalpindi | Aziz Huq/The Nation
It goes without saying that the killing of any human being is a tragedy. But the assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto in Liaqut Bagh in Rawalpindi, along with more than a dozen others, echoes back into Pakistan's troubled history, portends more violence and flags a proud country's fall further into chaos. It also signals the manifest bankruptcy of the Bush Administration's anti-terrorism policy in the region. ...
... It should escape no one's attention that Musharaff has relied so far on the openly pro-Taliban religious party Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI), particularly in the troubled province of Balochistan. News reports have consistently and plausibly identified Balochistan as the hiding place for high-level Al Qaeda leaders, including bin Laden, who can rely on sympathetic tribal and religious leaders. Musharraf depends for his political survival on political factions that are at minimum sympathetic to America's core enemy, and at worst are abetting the terrorist leadership's continued evasion of detection and arrest. In the muck of Pakistan's domestic politics, the friend of our friend may well be our enemy. Ironically, the Bush Administration has been backing a military leader who, even as he claimed to rein in religious militants, depends on them for his electoral success.
Without democracy, though, there is not even a remote possibility of severing this fatal bond, and putting an end to sanctuary for Al Qaeda's leadership. Without democracy, there is scant chance that the tribal and religious leaders who have provided the Taliban with a strategic sanctuary can be won over. Without democracy, there is little chance for reform of madrassas that not only spew out "martyrs" for Kashmir and Afghanistan but also give aid and comfort to the very small number in the West looking for justifications of violence.
Compounding the problem has been American incompetence. As in Iraq, billions of dollars in aid have been frittered away through incompetence and carelessness, leaving the Pakistani army just as unwilling and unable to take on the Taliban's sanctuaries. Worse, there is no remedial plan on the horizon. Under American tutelage, the military has gotten fatter and more ham-fisted.
The Bush Administration's policy with respect to Pakistan, in short, is a train wreck. As usual, the White House has assumed that military force--here deployed by a vassal state--could clamp down on terrorism. As usual, it has utterly failed to understand complex relations, here the links between ISI and Al Qaeda going back to the Afghan war, and the way in which corruption and a drift to purely "faith-based" politics push more and more people toward the violently eschatological ideology of our enemies.
The Administration's Pakistan policy is worse than a shambles; its failures radiate out. It is fostering the erosion of what limited success there was in Afghanistan. It is feeding terrorist propaganda that claims America sustains tyrants. And it is impeding the long-term goal of a Pakistan that cannot serve as a terrorist safe haven or a training ground for recruits from the West.
The death of Benazir Bhutto shows that the Bush Administration has left itself no way out. Beyond the tragedy of Pakistan's history cruelly replaying itself, today should go down as the day it became clear how badly the Bush Administration has failed in the region. For on September 12, 2001, there was one failed state that could be a terrorist haven. Today, it is violently and tragically clear that the Administration's policies have wrought two more failed states that could, and likely will, sustain terrorist activities in the future.
Link: Who Killed Bhutto? | Murtaza Shibli/CounterPunch.org
... Who killed Benazir?
There is no doubt that Benazir Bhutto had many enemies. After her rhetoric against Taliban and other Islamic fundamentalists, her list of enemies grew phenomenally.
Despite the "deal' between Pervez Musharraf and Benazir Bhutto, she was seen as main challenge to the current government. This is important to note that General Musharraf allowed Bhutto into Pakistan only after tremendous US pressure. When she arrived in Pakistan in October last, the millions of people who came to receive her gave sleepless nights to the government authorities. This ultimately paved way for the return of Nawaz Sharief another former Prime Minister who was earlier deported as soon as he landed in Pakistan.
Although the Jihadists and Al-Qaeda had allegedly vowed to kill her, the current Pakistani regime headed by General Musharraf can not be absolved and will be the greatest benefactor of her death. Another rival who may have been willing to see her dead are Chaudhry Brothers -- Chaudhry Pervez Illahi and Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain of Pakistan Muslim League Q, the political partner of General Musharraf. The Chaudhry Brothers were the bitterest opponents of Benazir's homecoming and tried unsuccessfully to stop President Musharraf from doing a deal with Bhutto.
When the terrorists attacked Benazir's homecoming rally on October 18, 2007, she blamed former Punjab Chief Minister Pervez Ilahi. Chaudhry Brothers have had well documented connections with the Jihadist extremists and are well known to use violence for their political goals.
Even if President Musharraf's government may not be directly involved in her killing, it can not be absolved of inaction in protecting her. Despite being on the "hit list' of terrorists and extremists, Benazir was not provided ample security cover. The deterioration of Pakistan's intelligence and security apparatus to predict or stop suicide bombings can be gauged by the number of rising fatal bombings in and around the highest protected area of the Army Headquarters GHQ in Rawalpindi. Benazir Bhutto was also killed in Rawalpindi not far from the country's military headquarters. ...
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