Althouse: "For standing up outside the car, I think it was she to blame alone

January 7, 2008

"For standing up outside the car, I think it was she to blame alone — nobody else."

Musharraf blames Benazir Bhutto for getting herself killed.

11 comments:

Meade said...: He has a point.; 1/7/08, 7:51 AM
Peter V. Bella said...: He may be right, but I think he suffers from foot in mouth disease.; 1/7/08, 8:16 AM
Ben (The Tiger in Exile) said...: He has a point, but I wouldn't say "nobody else". The guy who took the shots, the guy who blew himself up -- these are certain elements of causation here...; 1/7/08, 8:18 AM
Meade said...: Ben, don't you think he meant "nobody else but Bhutto is to blame for her choosing to stand up outside the car?"; 1/7/08, 8:25 AM
George M. Spencer said...: From Sunday's Parade profile by Gail Sheehy...

....Even while living with her three children in self-imposed exile in London and Dubai, she could not open a bank account or use a credit card because of the charges against her in Pakistan. “I didn’t have the press, I didn’t have the judiciary, I was all alone,” she whimpers. As if on cue, tears fall. “I only had God,” she moans.

Bhutto still insists that there are no foreign bank accounts in her name. I suggest that most are in the names of her mother or of friends. She feigns surprise—what could others’ finances have to do with her? “I’m an independent legal entity!” she protests. “What’s the difference between you and me?”

“One point five billion dollars,” I reply—the amount the Pakistani government contends that she and her husband pocketed while in power. She also allegedly siphoned funds from the U.N. Oil for Food program. Her defense: “Six other companies in Pakistan did it. Nobody investigated them.”

....Bhutto’s own family dismisses her little-girl-lost script. “Her father’s death was enormously convenient for her politically,” her American-educated niece, Fatima Bhutto, tells me. “She has no legacy of her own except for corruption and violence, so she rests on her father’s laurels.” Fatima blames her aunt for her own father’s assassination in 1996.

....True to form, Bhutto manipulated Musharraf to erase the charges against her, promising not to return to Pakistan until after national elections. She then broke that promise. But once she sensed that even her stalwarts were appalled at an arranged political marriage to a dictator, she spurned Musharraf and became her own woman again.

...Propping up Musharraf’s government, which is infested with radical Islamists, is only hastening disaster [she believes]. “I would say, ‘Your policy of supporting dictatorship is breaking up my country.’ I now think al-Qaeda can be marching on Islamabad in two to four years.”; 1/7/08, 8:37 AM
Kirk Parker said...: Remind me why we have anything to do with this clown Musharref? Oh, that's right, he's the best of what's left.; 1/7/08, 10:58 AM
Hoosier Daddy said...: Remind me why we have anything to do with this clown Musharref? Oh, that's right, he's the best of what's left.

Which is pretty much par for the course in terms of middle east politics. Granted there are true democrats in the Middle East but unfortunately broad based support for them within thier own countries lies somewhere between slim and none.; 1/7/08, 11:06 AM
Mortimer Brezny said...: Fundamentalist militants try to assasinate Musharraf like clockwork. If anyone is in a position to assess the recklessness of her actions, it would be him.; 1/7/08, 11:16 AM
Troy said...: Why did that damn JFK have to ride in a convertible? In Dallas, TX of all places?!?; 1/7/08, 3:04 PM
Anonymous said...: Bullshit.

I think this line of reasoning is crap.

It's blame the victim.

It's like blaming the US for 9/11.

People are responsibe for their actions-if this is a Republican making this argument he should be strung up by his er, tonsils if he has 'em.

What does he think- Bhutto should have cow-towed to the terrorists and "known" her place?

btw -what the heck about Stephen Kaus ( who seems more reasonable than Mickey) having the attitude that you should not be shocked by The Today's show crap coverage of her assassination?

It was like "let them eat cake" except for he said-" they should buy cable." Keep "the two Americas" hope alive?

But seriously does he know how absolutely miniscule the ratings are for the daytime cable news channels. I think the Home Shopping network gets more viewers-seriously.; 1/7/08, 7:23 PM
Chennaul said...: Oh for crap's sake Musharraf said it-cripes sorry I should have taken a couple of minutes before spealing off.; 1/7/08, 7:49 PM