News of the goings on inside Pakistan has all but disappeared from the western media lately with the naval gazing over the presidential primaries dominating nearly every second of the news cycle. The elections in Pakistan have been set for February 18, Bilawal Bhutto the soon-to-be leader of the Pakistan People’s Party addressed the media commenting on both his mothers assassination, and his leadership ability. Afghanistan remains part of this fight, and apparently Joe Lieberman is pretending he’s still relevant by visiting. The full run down is on the flipside.
Bilawal Bhutto Zardari addressed the media yesterday, calling for a UN investigation into the assassination of his mother.
“We do not believe that an investigation under the authority of the Pakistani government has the necessary transparency,” Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said at a news conference in London on Tuesday.
During this same press conference he admitted his lack of political leadership experience. Something that seems absurd to us, to get called out on when your mother was recently assassinated, you’re still in school and you assumed this role out of a duty to your mother and your country. Cut the kid a little slack. He’s going to Oxford, it’s not like he’s the Bush twins. Anyway his “lack” of leadership will probably serve him better than being entrenched in that snake pit.
Afghani officials continuing to barrow from the Bush playbook have decided that the “war on terror knows no borders”, without directly saying it it appears the Afghani leaders would support US led attacks into Pakistan on Al-Qaeda strongholds. Good, a fourth front. Perhaps the only front besides Afghanistan we should be involved in, and its only now this comes up. Sorry Karzai, Bush has bigger Iranian Gun Boat fish to fry.
And finally, Joe Lieberman decided it was time for a trip to Pakistan. He’s tough on security, you’ll remember. He recieved a debriefing from Pakistani military officials on the status of the Pakistani nuclear arsenal. Apparently, he feels confident. Well good. We were worried about what was keeping Joe Lieberman up at night. He called for fair elections, and clearly suffers from a serious irony deficiency.
Further:
In Pakistan, fear of an ethnic divide
Tribal mediators killed in Pakistan
Bhutto’s son admits inexperience
[...] The Real News Is Happening In Pakistan [...]
[...] British Secretary David Millband and US Secretary Condi Rice have made a surprise visit to Afghanistan today to again try to get the Afghani President Karzi to accept a special international envoy to Afghanistan. Which has been rejected by Karzi so he can strengthen his position by standing up to the West. Which is a nice way to saying he’s beholden to the extremists in his country, which we’ve reported on earlier. [...]