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View Full Version : Benazir Bhutto killed

BTB
12-27-2007, 06:59 AM
CNN is reporting she survived the initial bombing of her rally but was then shot in the neck. The world is a little darker today:

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/12/27/pakistan.sharif/index.html
AmyE
12-27-2007, 07:12 AM
Bad for the region, REALLY bad for Pakistan. what a horrible situation all around.
Sophia
12-27-2007, 07:16 AM
OMG, how horrible!
ThreeYell
12-27-2007, 07:45 AM
This is really bad. :(
MLA
12-27-2007, 08:08 AM
I just can't even imagine what's going to happen. She seemed like the last, decent hope for democracy in Pakistan. I wonder what her followers are going to do. . .
chefker
12-27-2007, 08:17 AM
What a horrible thing. :( She was the last ray of hope in Pakistan, I think.
dionysia
12-27-2007, 08:29 AM
This is awful. Pakistan has been a tinderbox for a long time, and here is the spark that may make the whole country explode into violence and instability.
princesse
12-27-2007, 08:30 AM
What a brave woman. I think she knew that she would die for her country. How terribly tragic. I am watching the news now.
Sophia
12-27-2007, 08:39 AM
This is awful. Pakistan has been a tinderbox for a long time, and here is the spark that may make the whole country explode into violence and instability.

So true. This is so incredibly sad and horrible. :(
nylons73
12-27-2007, 08:43 AM
Absolutely horrific :(
yby1
12-27-2007, 09:09 AM
This is so devastating for the area.

May she RIP.
MichelleRenee
12-27-2007, 09:11 AM
Very sad. She was a clue on Jeopardy last night and DH and I spent a few minutes talking about her. I was very sad to hear this morning that she had been killed.
kalogrias
12-27-2007, 06:51 PM
She was such a brave woman...I went to bed last night (10 pm Seoul time) thinking she had survived, and woke up this morning to see that she hadn't. As AmyE said, bad for the region, TERRIBLE for Pakistan...

What an awful thing.

My DH had what I consider to be a typically male response -- "Why are you surprised? She had more enemies than almost anyone." :rolleyes:
yby1
12-28-2007, 09:28 AM
There are so many parallels with Bhutto's death and the assassination of Franz Ferdinand. I REALLY hope it doesn't turn into something similar.
HeatherFL
12-28-2007, 10:23 AM
yby1 you're right, and I hope the same.

It really is such an awful tragedy.

I think she knew that she would die for her country.
I agree.
Purple
12-28-2007, 10:49 AM
This is sad news. I really hope that the democratic elections continue on and the country doesn't go into complete civil unrest. She fought so hard for this and she will be remembered for her contribution.
PG-rated
12-29-2007, 12:38 AM
I'm so sad about this, and so worried for the whole region. I was lucky enough to hear her speak in person when I was in grad school, and I was so amazed by her.
HeatherFL
12-29-2007, 09:31 AM
Did anyone see the man on Fox News speaking poorly of her? He was calling her and her husband thieves, and speaking of what terrible people they were. I caught the tail end of it, but I was pretty in awe that during this time he was using this tragedy to step up onto such a hateful soapbox.
Purple
12-29-2007, 09:37 AM
No I didn't see it. It is awful that he does not respect the grieving of the family and people who have just lost someone dear to them.
Niobe
12-29-2007, 10:26 AM
FOX news? Color me shocked. :rolleyes:

This is so horrible. I hope her death doesn't make things even worse over there. :(
msnicolea
12-29-2007, 01:50 PM
I'm not surprised by the coverage--she and her husband were commonly regarded as thieves--they left Pakistan with millions and millions of "creatively obtained" money. She was certainly not without fault, nor was she a beacon of democracy that some try to portray--but these events are nonetheless heinous. Besides being a politician, she was a wife and mother .

This is a tragic, tragic situation with potentially dire consequences that will be felt around the globe.
BridalLace
12-29-2007, 02:18 PM
I'm not surprised by the coverage--she and her husband were commonly regarded as thieves--they left Pakistan with millions and millions of "creatively obtained" money. She was certainly not without fault, nor was she a beacon of democracy that some try to portray--but these events are nonetheless heinous. Besides being a politician, she was a wife and mother .

This is a tragic, tragic situation with potentially dire consequences that will be felt around the globe.

i gotta say i agree with this. ask anyone from that region, that lived through her 2 administrations, and were privy to how she ran Pakistan while she was in office. they certainly do not view her as the martyr that her death has made out of her. some of them feel she did some good, some of them feel she was a symbol of change, some of them feel she was the source of a great deal of corruption, and that she was partly responsible for the fact that the Taliban got its start when she was in power. i don't know all the facts, just that she is associated with some good, some bad.

i personally don't understand why she was sticking her head out of the top of that van as has been shown on TV over and over. isn't that a foolish thing to do when you KNOW you're the target of some very violent people? i don't get it. anyway, i think its wonderful that she worked for change, and i understand she was an isolated example of female leadership in a region that so sorely needs it, but i think she was also a complicated woman with a checkered past. may she rest in peace.
HeatherFL
12-29-2007, 03:17 PM
Purple I'm in agreement with you.

To be really honest, I follow the politcs thread and really admire how much so many of you ladies know about politics/politicians. I have made it a point to learn a lot more because I feel so ignorant and haven't made it a point to do so in the past. While I knew who Bhutto was, I was unaware of any of this until I heard the tail end of the news report, and had wondered why anyone would say such things during such a horrible time.

~H.
Purple
12-31-2007, 10:32 AM
This (http://www.macleans.ca/article.jsp?content=w123111A) is what I was fearing.
PG-rated
12-31-2007, 12:48 PM
The thing about Pakistan is that it's all shades of gray. Bhutto was never blameless in her political career, but she was committed to democracy in a way that the current leadership could never claim.

I'm not at all surprised to have this used as an excuse to postpone the elections. Musharraf can't win a fair election and he's desperate to hold onto power.
msnicolea
01-05-2008, 09:11 AM
I t hink you are right on, PG-rated. Musharraf will exploit this situation, in a desperate attempt to retain power.
PG-rated
01-08-2008, 03:11 PM
This is very upsetting: Doctors Cite Pressure to Keep Silent on Bhutto (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2007/12/31/ST2007123102506.html)

Basically, if she was shot point-blank, then there's an excellent chance someone in the armed forces was involved, which means Musharraf is either directly or indirectly responsible for her death.
phoenics
01-09-2008, 06:36 AM
This is very upsetting: Doctors Cite Pressure to Keep Silent on Bhutto (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2007/12/31/ST2007123102506.html)

Basically, if she was shot point-blank, then there's an excellent chance someone in the armed forces was involved, which means Musharraf is either directly or indirectly responsible for her death.

Musharraf also said on 60 Minutes that it was Bhutto's fault (and her fault alone) that she died because she 'stood up in the car'. If she was killed by a bomb - I'm not sure sitting down would have stopped her death... though I guess others in the car weren't hurt - but weren't there others standing up with her? And if it was death from the bomb explosion, why aren't they dead?

She was so shot - and I think Musharraf's comment was a slip-up, revealing he knew more than he was telling.


My mom, sister and I literally had to pick our mouths up off the floor.