Left Flank

Joshua Foust recommends two geostrategic essays on Pakistan, and I'll second that. Both are a healthy departure from William Kern's alarmism. Not that the prospect of a nuclear-armed state unravelling is not worrisome, but how often do the interests of Saudi Arabia, India, PRC, and the US line up? The second post reminds the US, as Elizabeth Bumiller reminds us "How Bhutto Won Washington", that "how little the United States fathomed the feudal politics of South Asia, and its own ability to control events in the cauldron of Pakistan."

Ironically, the Bhutto assassination might have more impact on the US primary elections (at least for Senator Joe Biden's chances for third place in Iowa) than on Pakistan.

It's shameful to admit, but no American politician can handle the Bhutto assassination well. And, neither can some pundits. Yet Aaron Mannes can argue for a real investigation into Bhutto's assassin. This simple request is necessary because the opinions about Bhutto's involuntary death (and, right now that seems to be the limits of any conclusion based on facts) are disputed by the some of the same people arguing over the culprit and the consequences. TPM also weighs in with expert opinion.

After sifting through bandwidth for two days, I've compiled some informative articles (in order of merit). Left Coaster gets the prize for irrelevance and for bowing to the logical error of authority: who cares what the establishment opinion is? Anatol Lieven gets the other prize for his balanced, yet provocative essay concluding, that "Pakistan's mainstream politicians should now be able to see that if they do not work together, many of them will be assassinated separately." The NY Times' John F. Burns characterizes Benazir Bhutto as a "woman of complex and often contradictory instincts". Joshua Foust concludes, in a well-linked blog post with updates, that "it is unclear what the U.S.'s stance should be. It really does seem to be caught flat-footed here, unless there was some other politician waiting in the wings no one knew about." Talking dog considers prayer. Finally, the Online Newshour does its usual excellent job presenting interviews facts, and opinions surrounding Bhutto's assassination. That concludes the A-list.

Also kudos go to Thomas P.M. Barnett and Matthew Yglesias for contributing valuable, complementary opinions that jive with the better-prepared essays above. What follows rounds out the long list of required reading. After a few days, when more details arise, I think opinions will start to diverge from the respectful obituaries they are now. I'm not getting into the issue of who Bhutto's assassin was, since I suspect partisanship will blur complicity to a fine margin of error sometime right after most people stop caring about the incident. And, even if the assassin confesses online, I doubt that media event would distract partisans from pursuing their own conspiracy theories about the motives.

1. But, I'm wary of following Zbigniew Brzezinski, for philosophical and historical reasons. I'm not sure respecting the sovereignty of Pakistan is useful now that the ISI has turned upon its own children and it's assistance in Afghanistan has always been suspect.

2. Taylor Marsh ranges from primary politics in the US to grander IR themes.

3. Swaraaj Chauhan performs his own investigation into Bhutto's assassin.

4. Greg Laden has his own secondhand account providing color about Bhutto's assassination.

5. Bill Roggio provides another serviceable report on al-Qaeda's complicity in Bhutto's assassination.

6. Eli Lake presents evidence for a troubling conclusion of collusion between the ISI and al-Qaeda.

7. Bill Scher presents as balanced an account of the "Blame Washington" meme as is expected or possible.

Finally, Pakistan is burning.