Without being cynical: but it is rather a question of ‘when’ not ‘if’ high ranking politicians get killed. Musharraf several times escaped bombs and shooters. Benazir Bhutto was not so lucky this time - although she had survived another attack just after her recent return to Pakistan.

Pakistan, India and Afghanistan - and many Middle Eastern countries are still very violent societies. As long as people are willing to kill and die for settling political scores there will be no ‘civil society’ nor ‘rule of law’.

It’s all such a shame.

This is an interview in October after the attack on her shortly after her return.

BBC News: article, international reactions and images

President Pervez Musharraf has stepped on the brakes and clamped down on the country. Pakistan has seen a lot of political turmoil in it’s short history - today’s situation is nothing new.

Will we see a peaceful solution? Hardly. Will we see more bombs and violence from militants and fundamentalists? Certainly. Some countries are on a hard and long road to Democracy. Let’s hope that the Islamists don’t take over the country, it’s nuclear weapons and huge military.

She is the rarest of political creatures: a female Muslim Prime Minister. Her recent return (BBC News) maybe signals the end of the military dictatorship of President Pervez Musharraf.

Pakistan is pretty much unstable these days. Torn apart by internal conflicts, corruption, poverty and religion.

These two videos might give you some excellent insights on what’s going on: Part 1 and Part 2.

More? Some background on Benazir Bhutto

The US wants that Iran, North Korea and many other countries give up their atomic bombs. On the other side they recently started new programs to build such weapons of mass destruction (or even smaller tasks like bunker busting). Plus recent events have shown us, that the US adopted a new doctrine to strike first …

Anyone surprised that even more countries want nukes?!

Looks like that Pakistan - together with embattled Iraq - is the biggest breeding ground for terrorists? Sure many Taliban fighters fled from Afghanistan to Pakistan, but the country itself has many problems with fundamentalists, which tried to bomb it’s way to power.

Pakistan has a sad and terrible history as a country. It’s birth was the result of civil war in India and so far the tension was never gone. Pakistan should never be allowed to sink into chaos, because of it’s stockpile of nuclear weapons.

Pakistan is also a hot potato for the US - like Saudi Arabia: they both are getting weapons and protection - and both their societies support terrorism. Very tricky situation.

So it’s no surprise that Osama bin Laden actually called this week for an overthrow of the Pakistani Government. If Fundamentalists would rule in Pakistan they instantly would have loads of cash, a big Army and the whole range of WMD’s for fun.