The Coalition of the Swilling

Ok, I'll bite. Why is it bad?

One would think that if the major political opponent of one of our allies that has major domestic divisions and nukes gets shot and blown up...well, that could cause problems for US policy somewhere along the way, regardless of how 'strong' an ally they may or may not be. Especially given that we are headed for some restructuring on our political front, as well.

Dear God.

I met her once when I was an undergrad: she impressed upon me then, and ever since, that she was the best hope for her country. She was a force of nature in her commitment to Pakistan, and she was practically everything our enemies hate. And so they murdered her. I'm just speechless: this is a terrible loss and bodes very very badly for the future.

she was practically everything our enemies hate.

Exactly right. Let's not puff her up to be some virgin paragon Queen of Democratic Purity; she was every bit 'one of the boys', a ruthless politician who was implicated in the deaths of both of her brothers and had massive amounts of corruption attached to her rule...and that's what truly scared/infuriated the hardline islamists, as she showed a woman could be equal to a man in every way that mattered to them.

Nope. Doorknob dead.

What a surprise, huh?

Eh, a good friend of mine from Pakistan tells me that she is part of even worse corruption than Musharraf is and was horrified that she was being welcomed back at all.

It just seems like neutral news to me (except that any assassination is bad for the dead person). She posed no great hope for that nation, and was planning to return the old corruption to replace the current corruption. Musharraf has some problems, but he's certainly better than she would have been.

The whole region is a basket case and I'm still appalled that we haven't "helped" more to relieve Pakistan of its problem with Al Qaeda having taken complete control of half of the country. This woman would not have helped us do that any more than Musharraf has. So, it's a wash.

Skyler, even assuming she would've been bad for the country (which I don't), it's not a wash. The act of the assassination is going to cause a huge and overwhelmingly negative and violent ripple effect. Gandhi was not the sainted wondrous perfect figure he's made out to be in the west, either, but what resulted from the fact of his assassination was a catastrophic bloodbath the legacy of which continues to this day.

Dave, it might in the long run be a good thing. It might cause Pakistan to do something positive in reaction. Time will tell. I have little hope for them one way or another until Islam is irradicated from their country. This woman was not going to fix the country, she was just going to try to change the people in charge of oppressing it. To me, her death is neither good nor bad, it just doesn't much matter.