The government probably made up the story for the same reason for the made up the story of Pat Tilman’s death. In Tilman’s death it was an inside job and not the work of some outside organization.

How in the world does someone not take that statement as you saying Tillman was murdered. And whether you believe a certain Ranger unit or not existed matters not. That’s up to the military. They covered up a bad scene and they got caught, but to try and compare the two incidents is just plain wrong.

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I what I mean by inside job was the military created a unit that shouldn’t have existed, the unit fell apart because of the dediciencies that existed, and then the brass tried to cover it up to save the ranger image. If it was a fog of war thing, the U.S. there would be no reason for anybody to lie about story number one. I think the true cover up in the case was at least that ranger unit should not have existed. I remember reading the final report in a newspaper that at least one guy had poor eye sight, one guy later on shot at two rangers in a village during daylight, the commander went against training to split up his men and then somebody bothered to use shock paddles on a long dead body which was not guarded. That sounds like something out of the comic show F-Troop rather than the image of an elite force and that image is what the U.S. military is trying to protect. I never said anything about elected officals.

Musharraf has less and less friends now. Giving him money for arms didn’t work, the cover up of Benazir Bhutto was amateurish and his backing down against the northern tribes didn’t win him any friends with Afganistan or NATO. I wonder how the CIA is doing in finding quality leadership for Pakistan which wouldn’t get assassinated. I sense they have found no good options. An invasion of Pakistan would be unlikely. Dropping support for Musharraf would still be unlikely ( NATO would have to depend on Afganistan for everything since Pakistan would revoke air flights over Pakistan). The alternative is going from Turkey or Iraq over Amermenia over Azerbaijan over the Caspian sea, over Turkmenistan and down into Afganistan. NATO troops dressing up as Afganistan soldiers, Pakistani soldier or local tribesmen and going after people in Northern Pakistan would be more likely.

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Although, granted that the Taliban and al Qaeda have been allowed to rebuild in sanctuaries in Afghanistan and Pakistan, there is no longer any actions that the United States can take that will prevent a permanent military dictatorship in Pakistan, with Taliban and al Qaeda continuing to use Pakistan as their base for recruiting and controlling their worldwide operations.

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There was no chance that the current military government of Pakistan was going to allow any sort of democratic election: in 2008 or ever.

It was not a case of IF she would be assasinated, but WHEN.

All that is left is for the election to be deferred and the Bush Administration (the only external support Musharif has)to support that decision.

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I know hindsight is easier than foresight but it does seem to have been a mistake to encourage her to return without adequate protection.

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I think this situation calls for a joint Huckabee/Obama task force. But seriously, this is the consequence of the “gentle push towards democracy”, and deep inside everybody knows the house of cards is about to fall.

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“Bhutto had been due to meet U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., and Rep. Patrick Kennedy, D-R.I., to hand over a report charging that the military Inter-Services Intelligence agency was planning to fix the polls in the favor of President Pervez Musharraf.

Safraz Khan Lashari, a member of the Pakistan People’s Party election monitoring unit, said the report was “very sensitive” and that the party wanted to initially share it with trusted
American politicians rather than the Bush administration, which is seen here as strongly backing Musharraf.

That those two named US politicians are trusted by anyone is scary.

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I fixed it Michael. Apparently the comment section wouldn’t allow the strike code but have changed it to allow it.

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Hmm, there was supposed to be a strike through of the words “an inside job” in my last post, but it does not seem to have worked. Sorry about that.

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There is video of the shooters outside the car.

And Tillman wasn’t murdered. He was accidentally killed by friendly fire and the military brass tried to hide it, not our elected leaders so your analogy doesn’t add up. But I do agree Pakistan was trying to cover up something.

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