Murder In Bombay, business as usual in Islamabad

I have attempted several times to write something appropriate to respond to the butchery in India, but given the smart alecky one liners that I tend to prefer on this blog nothing had seemed to match the horror of the images which have crowded our TV screens.
the deliberate targetting of foreigners and Jews, the indiscriminating machine gunning of commuter trains, the attack on women and children at the Cama and Ablass hospitals show the true FASCIST nature of Islamist terror; those who have excused such acts in the past as expressions of some sort of 'anti imperialism' should hold their heads in shame.

My sincere condolences to the families of all those who lost their lives.

The evidence that points toward Pakistani secret service involvement threatens an even greater horror as the two great Nuclear powers of south Asia square up for yet another war.

One of the many questions that do occur is the relationship between the 'return to democracy' in Pakistan, following the election of the PPP, and the Islamist terror groups. In the popular acclumation that the western press greeted the resignation of General Mushareff, and the election of Benazir Bhutto's successor Yousaf Gillani as prime minister, there was much made of the PPP's loudly proclaimed opposition to Terrorism and support for the USA's TWAT.

However the long recognised close relationship between the Taliban and Pakistans secret service ,the ISI, began, and flourished, not during the dictatorship of Mushareff, but whilst 'democratic' Benazir Bhutto was in power. The contrast between the urbane, privately educated, and cultured Pakistani Ruling Class, extemplified by Bhutto herself (and that arch trot toff twat Tariq Ali) and the web of tribal and clan allegiances that make up their political power bases especially in the old North west frontier regions where the Taliban and the islamist groups have their havens, is stark, and has been generally glossed over by their cheerleaders in the West. The 'democratic' politicians of Pakistan are nothing of the sort, the difference between them and the warlords of the NWFP is nothing more than an Oxbridge accent, a sharp suit and better public relations.