Pakistan Unraveling, Bhutto Assassinated

True. And I considered the possibility that Musharraf was behind it. But if he had been behind it he would not have used a suicide bomber. He is unpopular enough as it is. He definately would not have risked the backlash from a suicide bomber. The bomber shot Bhutto, then blew himself and many others up. The general consensus is that is was Al Quida.

 

The election is a week away. No time to find someone of her ilk to run in her place, assuming there is such a person. Maybe in a few years one of her supporters that reflects her views may rise to the top.

 

I doubt it was Musharraf, his country will teeter on the brink of turmoil and chaos now. It's more likely to be a terrorist organization, though it could be someone who supports Musharraf who acted independently. According to what I've heard.

 

It was reported that the al Qaeda Afghanistan commander claimed responsibility for the attack, but they usually use websites to deliver their messages. Nothing yet has been posted, but they are known for attacking right before elections.

Musharraf escaped an attack a few years ago. I doubt he had anything to do with it. Anyone deemed to be friends with the U.S. are targeted.

A country with nukes in chaos. A scary thought.

 

Exactly. This incident could just be the spark to get Musharraf overthrown and put the nukes in the hands of the fundamentlist.

 

seems to be a few contridictions.

as red posted, suicide bombing is an al queda hallmark, yet the letter/email from bhutto a couple months ago points at musharrif. however, al queda doesnt usually (ever?) do political assns.

nukes. i heard an interview of a paki on the radio yest. aftnoon. didnt hear the info he gave anywhere since, so i'll relay it. paki's nukes are not stored intact. they are stored disassembled with the various necessary pieces in various locations. also, since they acquired these with our blessings, we had a heavy hand in the operations systems used. because of this, evidently there are very few individuals in the world (and most of them non-pakis in the west) know how to activate and deploy the nukes.

it is next to impossible for al queda to break in and steal/launch active nukes. the only real danger is if there is another military coup led by one of the few pakis that have the knowledge of the nuke operations system.

 

That email referred to Musharraf not providing her with enough security. It is odd that she was so concerned about her security (for good reason), yet was hanging out the sunroof of an SUV.

Bhutto's email

China helped build their nuke program, not the U.S. All we did was look the other way. Our knowledge of their program depends largely on how much we know about China's program. Given our intelligence blunder with Iraq, I'm not convinced we know as much as we claim.

I don't think the real danger is someone stealing and launching the nukes, as that requires a great deal of knowledge they probably don't have. But if the wrong people take over Pakistan and its military, they could provide technology and materials to their crazy friends to build smaller weapons like suitcase bombs.

It's an unknown at this point.

 

great another worthless war to get into

 

didnt see anything in there about the nuke delivery system which is what i heard the US had a big part in. will look into it.

anyway just wanted to reassure those that are worried about al queda or other extremist group getting their hands on a nuke. dumb talking heads on fox were worried about it so i thought others here might be too.

i think the real "danger" is dirty bombs.

and if the US has to go into paki to control the nukes it would by no means be a useless war. on the plus side, we could kill two birds with one stone and get obl, too.

 

Interventionism is bad policy, particularly if we can't get Congress to declare war. If Congress won't declare war, we'll get into another unpopular, half-assed war, and support will easily wane as it is in Iraq. Not to mention, this will make us look worse in the eyes of the world and the cost is really prohibitive. The dollar is taking a serious hit and the only way we can afford war is to borrow from China and/or artificially inflate the value of the dollar which will put our own national defense in peril. Can we really afford to risk our own safety to get involved in the internal affairs of other nations?

If we go into Pakistan, are we going to install another pro-America dictator that many of the Pakistan people will automatically rail against? Are we going to be in Pakistan until stability is restored, many many years and many many lives down the road? Are we ready to fight, and for our children to fight, future generations of terrorism? Think China will like us setting up base in Pakistan?