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Fred Thompson on Benazir Bhutto assassination (Fox Interview)
Fred08 ^ | December 27, 2007

Posted on 12/27/2007 11:14:53 AM PST by 2ndDivisionVet

HARRIS FAULKNER : Senator, your reaction, first, to the assassination of Benazir Bhutto.

FRED THOMPSON : It is a tragedy, of course. It reminds us that things can happen in faraway places of the world that can affect the United States. I think this should be of great concern to us. It is almost a perfect storm in a very bad sense because two forces are operating against each other that are both desirable. One is democracy: they were making progress in that regard in that country. Former prime minister Bhutto was an important part of that process. But the other is stability. Pakistan is a nuclear country, and we cannot afford to let nukes fall into the hands of dangerous Muslim radicals. We are hoping those two things can be balanced out. We can see the continued progress toward a democratic society but also maintain stability in the country, which seems to be very much in doubt right now.

FAULKNER: I know you are running for the White House, so I don't want to put you in a position to second guess the president. But I'm interested in your opinion. President Bush is due to talk with Pervez Musharraf shortly. What do you anticipate that conversation should be like?

THOMPSON: Those two things that I mention probably would be high on the agenda. What could be done to not impose martial law, to not crack down, but be mindful of the fact that there are radical elements in that country, and perhaps even within the government, that would like to see instability and chaos and see those weapons fall into the wrong hands. This is part of a bigger problem. We need to understand that this is not a criminal investigation any more - so we find the bad guys and bring them to justice - it's a war.

This proves again the mindset of the radical elements that we are dealing with. We are seeing this all across Northern Africa and various places. We're seeing it across the Middle East and in parts of Asia including Indonesia and other places. We have to come to terms with that and do the things necessary to prevail. One of the things we need to be talking about is what Musharraf can do, additionally, to crack down on the Taliban. I think they have been insufficient in that respect.

FAULKNER : Taliban also supporters of al Qaeda in that country. Pakistan has been an important ally in the war on terror, so have do you walk that line?

THOMPSON: You just walk it. No one said it has been easy and simple. Pakistan has never been easy or simple. I had a chance a few years ago to talk to Musharraf before things got quite as complex as they are now. But it has always been an important part of the world. They're next door to India. They've had a crisis after crisis with regard to them. They're next door to Afghanistan, and they're important to us. They've been helpful to us. But we' re going to have to walk that line between democracy on the one hand and stability on the other. But I think it's possible.


TOPICS: Tennessee; Campaign News; Issues
KEYWORDS: 2008; afghanistan; asia; assassination; benazirbhutto; bhutto; election; electionpresident; elections; foreignaffairs; foreignpolicy; fred; fredthompson; gop; gwot; india; middleeast; nationaldefense; pakistan; perezmusharraf; republicans; straightshooter; talkradio; television; thompson; wot
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach
Huckabee loves to speak in platitudes
61 posted on 12/27/2007 11:56:02 AM PST by Fred (The Demoroid Party is the Nadir of Nilhilism)
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To: HoustonTech
To me it sounds like Huck is getting talking points from Newt Gingrich: "The dictatorship in Pakistan has never had control over Wiziristan. Not for a day. So we've now spent six years since 9/11 with a sanctuary for al Qaeda and a sanctuary for the Taliban, and every time we pick up people in Great Britain who are terrorists, they were trained in Pakistan. And our answer is to praise Musharraf because at least he's not as bad as the others. But the truth is Musharraf has not gotten control of terrorism in Pakistan. Musharraf doesn't have full control over his own government. The odds are even money we're going to drift into a disastrous dictatorship at some point in Pakistan. And while we worry about the Iranians acquiring a nuclear weapon, the Pakistanis already have 'em, So why would you feel secure in a world where you could presently have an Islamist dictatorship in Pakistan with a hundred-plus nuclear weapons? What's our grand strategy for that?"
62 posted on 12/27/2007 11:57:15 AM PST by Tlaloc
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To: counterpunch

I don’t think he’s as inactive as we are told by the national punditry, who all have written him off since the start. This is no conspiracy, rather a smug “Why haven’t you been running since we’ve been interested?” kind of thing. I think most voters in the country are just beginning to take note, and frankly think it disgusting the way we are forced to make early choices for the candidates. That’s how we got Bob Dole, and why we no longer have him in the Senate.


63 posted on 12/27/2007 12:05:44 PM PST by steve8714 (Build the fence, ship 'em out, legalize teen workers.)
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To: Tlaloc
While I think Gingrich has made some dumb remarks regard the WOT, this statement is far cry from what Huckabee and other Democrats have been saying. This paragraph rightly voices a concern about having “an Islamist dictatorship in Pakistan with a hundred-plus nuclear weapons,” but what Huckabee wants to do would do more to insure that an Islamist dictatorship would rise up in that state.

Musharraf may not be the ideal statesman in Pakistan, but he is at least a secular leader. The very nature of Pakistan demands that our next President has a good understanding of cause and envent in the diplomatic world. We cannot afford a neophyte in the White House, and that is what we would have with any of the Democrats including Mike Huckabee.

Huckabee scares me to death. Nearly any of the Republican candidates (save Ron Paul) would be better, and Ron Paul would only be equally as bad.

64 posted on 12/27/2007 12:08:33 PM PST by HoustonTech (Fred Tax Calculator: http://gil.yoder.home.comcast.net/)
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To: steve8714
I think most voters in the country are just beginning to take note, and frankly think it disgusting the way we are forced to make early choices for the candidates.
I agree there. It also goes to show how stupid Iowans are that they set their caucus date so that their campaign season would peak from Christmas to New Years. Dolts.

 
65 posted on 12/27/2007 12:11:27 PM PST by counterpunch (ABH - Anybody But Huckabee)
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To: Grampa Dave

AMEN!

I sent a note to someone this morning in light of the Bhutto assassination, telling them that we had better pray that Fred Thompson is elected POTUS, because we are going to need someone leading this country who knows more than how to be a slick politician.


66 posted on 12/27/2007 12:11:39 PM PST by LucyJo
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To: Grimmy; RedStateRocker; gonzo; DeaconBenjamin; indcons; sukhoi-30mki; Eyes Unclouded; ECM; ...
Pakistan ۋﮧ۱م

FReepmail if you want on or off
67 posted on 12/27/2007 12:12:04 PM PST by G8 Diplomat (Creatures are divided into 6 kingdoms: Animalia, Plantae, Fungi, Monera, Protista, & Saudi Arabia)
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To: HoustonTech

How will Huck insure that Islamists will take over Pakistan by bombing them to smithereens and killing them? We threatened to bomb Pakistan into the stone age if they didn’t help us destroy al-qaeda. It’s well past time to face the fact that they are not helping us get the job done. Are the threats of the USA hollow, or do we really mean it when we say “Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists.”


68 posted on 12/27/2007 12:18:34 PM PST by Tlaloc
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach
For what did..... the Huckster apologize?

We're all trying to figure out what he meant. And English his native tongue too.

69 posted on 12/27/2007 12:21:46 PM PST by 668 - Neighbor of the Beast ( "Do well, but remember to do good.")
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To: 668 - Neighbor of the Beast; All
Fill the Tank on the Red Pickup Truck

Now showing

$103,865.00


70 posted on 12/27/2007 12:23:58 PM PST by Fred (The Demoroid Party is the Nadir of Nilhilism)
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To: Tlaloc

You should apply for the Secretary of Defense position within Huckabee’s campaign. It couldn’t be any worse than he has right now.


71 posted on 12/27/2007 1:01:34 PM PST by HoustonTech (Fred Tax Calculator: http://gil.yoder.home.comcast.net/)
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To: Little Ray; Grampa Dave; Ernest_at_the_Beach; Dog Gone; dalereed; tubebender; BOBTHENAILER
"In this age of Lawfare" Interesting new word you've coined there, Little Ray!!!

Kinda reminds me of Jamie Gorelick!!! (Warfare vs Lawfare)

Hitlery would have coined it Lawfair... Phhhhhhhht!!!

72 posted on 12/27/2007 2:16:12 PM PST by SierraWasp (Too much religion mixed with politics just leads the participants into too much hate & discontent!!!)
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To: SierraWasp
From the Vets4FRED Website:

"Our country is in a global war of historic proportions,
and not enough people realize that yet..."Fred

73 posted on 12/27/2007 2:29:51 PM PST by Ernest_at_the_Beach (No Burkas for my Grandaughters!)
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To: SierraWasp

I didn’t invent it - it is literally inconcievable to me. I think I picked it up on the Strategy Page.
In a sane society, lawyers waging lawfare on the behalf of terrorists would be arrested, tried before a military tribunal, convicted, and hanged for treason the next morning.


74 posted on 12/27/2007 2:30:05 PM PST by Little Ray (Rudy Guiliani: If his wives can't trust him, why should we?)
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To: Tlaloc; All

Just shows that Huckabee is totally and absolutly clues on figthting this war.

Has it ever occurred to you there is a tactical reason the the mightiest military in the world has not captured some thug in a cave?

Of course not, you support that Bush bashing gitmo closing idiot...


75 posted on 12/27/2007 3:00:02 PM PST by ejonesie22 (In America all people have a right to be wrong, some just exercise it a bit much...)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

This is a war and until all of America realizes it the worse it is going to be. AQ wants to destroy the west and especially America.

Pray for W and Our Troops


76 posted on 12/27/2007 3:04:02 PM PST by bray (Fred, the Law and Order Candidate)
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To: SierraWasp
Kinda reminds me of Jamie Gorelick!!! (Warfare vs Lawfare) Hitlery would have coined it Lawfair... Phhhhhhhht!!!

OK...I'll say it. KILL THE BASTARDS

77 posted on 12/27/2007 3:04:49 PM PST by BOBTHENAILER (One by one, in small groups or in whole armies, we don't care how we do it, but we're gonna getcha)
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To: BOBTHENAILER; Grampa Dave

Yew cain’t say theyat, ewwwwwwwwww!!! That’s terribly mean spirited yew mean NAILERMAN!!! Confess yer sin ta Saint Huckabeensuckedin... den go an sin no mo!!! (/dripin slovenly sarcasm wif a suthern baptistan acceyent)


78 posted on 12/27/2007 5:12:02 PM PST by SierraWasp (Too much religion mixed with politics just leads the participants into too much hate & discontent!!!)
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To: SierraWasp
Yew cain’t say theyat, ewwwwwwwwww!!!

Yas I cain. Thas not raght yew a compairin' me to Mr. Huckleberry. That makes me thank o' that moovie about Tombstone, whar that feller ol'Doc Holiday said to de guy raght for' he kilt him, "I'm yer Huckleberry"

Then he done went an' shot I'm in de haid.

An' thas whut I thank we needs ta dew, Shewt 'em in de haid.

79 posted on 12/27/2007 6:09:17 PM PST by BOBTHENAILER (One by one, in small groups or in whole armies, we don't care how we do it, but we're gonna getcha)
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach
Fred did ok. But the guy the media should be interviewing, Duncan Hunter, is avoided like the plague because he is the best choice for POTUS this next time around. While others where doing whatever they where for the past eight years, Hunter was a super advocate of strong national defense, strong military in general, protecting our borders regardless of required funding in a way of a sufficiently double tiered fence approach, strong on somehow reversing the flow of business so that corporations would stay in the US, and not lose our long legaciy of being the best in engineering and research, strong on prosecuting the GWOT etc.. The rest of the pack on both sides can not stand up to the level Hunter has worked at on a daily basis.
Hey. He has called for an end of Chinese taking over our west coast ports etc..
But this guy is dangerous to both sides because he would do all that is required without reservation to keep this nation strong and safe and at least attempt to turn the tide on globalization where it weakens the in place industrial and scientific institutions and industry.
80 posted on 12/27/2007 8:13:22 PM PST by Marine_Uncle (Duncan Hunter for POTUS)
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