Someone tried to assassinate Pervez Musharraf today:
"A bomb exploded moments after Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf's motorcade passed a bridge near the capital Sunday, at least the second attempt on his life since he enraged hard-liners in 2001 by backing the U.S.-led war on terror in Afghanistan. No one was hurt. " Full story here. This is not the first time this has happened, and Musharraf stated that "Let me say with confidence I'm used to such incidents, it's happened before."
I don't know much about Pakistan, and I know there are plenty of bad things about Musharraf, but I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that if this had succeeded it would have been much, much worse news for the United States than Saddam's capture is good news. Can someone point me to some good sources on the subject?
Katherine, you're right about this: Musharraf's assassination would have turned the day into a net loss for the safety of the world in general. You know all those problems we have where North Korea and Iran are borderline hostile to us, somewhat regionally ambitious, and are working on developing nuclear weapons? Pakistan post-Musharraf would give you some of (a) with plenty of (b), and let's not even talk about (c).
Posted by: Seth | December 15, 2003 at 04:23 PM
I agree it would have led to huge uncertainties about the direction Pakistan would go.
Posted by: Toronto Tenants | January 24, 2004 at 11:42 AM