Suicide bombing in Pakistan
About 20,000 people showed up to cheer former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto's return to Pakistan, after eight years in exile. And very soon, 136 of those people (at last count) were killed while 387 were wounded, from at least two suicide bombers.
Normally I don't write about things that already get plenty of press, but I'll make an exception here.
I know the typical reaction in the west to this kind of story is usually to ignore it. The bombing wasn't in America or Europe, so it gets low priority. Heck, it wasn't even in Iraq or Afghanistan, so those worried about the troops have little concern.
But it's still important, nonetheless. The body count here was massive, and you are dealing with a suicide bomber here - for every one you see, there's about a thousand you don't. Additionally, this wasn't in a backward country hostile to the West, this was in Pakistan, a backward country whose leaders have sincerely tried to embrace the west, and who share borders with Iran and Afghanistan. On top of all that, they also have atomic weapons. Add all this up, and you see how a civil war could be a very, very bad thing for the world in the long run.
Earlier, Ms. Bhutto blamed supporters of former president Mohammed Zia ul-Haq for the attack. No one has claimed responsibility for it, but the truth is, it has all the hallmarks of Al-Qaeda. While Bhutto has strong support among women and the poor, many islamic fundamentalists are not happy with a woman leading the country, particularly a woman who is sympathetic to the west and was educated there. Regarding the bombing, Glenn Reynolds at Instapundit quipped:
Have you noticed that the radical Islamists have basically one response to everything?
As usual, the Counterterrorism Blog has a good wrap up of reporting on the incident.
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