Pakistan: Bhutto assassination resources
Many people have already written some great comments on former President Bhutto’s assassination. Here are the links to what I think are the quality discussions:
The New York Times has a feature story, plus Biographical Timeline on Ms. Bhutto, some of her own writing, and other details accessible on the linked page.
Peter Marton at My State Failure blog focusses upon the security question, and how to judge factional politics–and our inability to do so.
Joshua Foust at Registan.net has several great posts, one a rolling commentary as information came in yesterday, with great discussion, and the other a comment upon facile judgments of the events so far.
A list of possible suspects, including al-Qaeda, is discussed at Wired. One of the things I most like about this post is that it doesn’t take any one group for granted. Here is the U.S. we have been ready to believe almost any statement made about al-Qaeda if it links them to atrocities. Okay, but that doesn’t mean they have done everything they claim to do. That’s a matter of reputation, and it will take some intelligence gathering to ascertain the truth of the claim.
Yesterday at the State Department, this official condolence for the Bhutto family, the people of Pakistan, and democratic process went out. No one expects any salacious or ground-breaking news from the press release, but it sort of underscores that the U.S. message isn’t making any difference in the conduct of politics in Pakistan–at least, once that politics gets to the fundamentals.