Like a lot of Americans, I woke up one morning last week to the news on the radio: Benazir Bhutto was dead. I felt sad. Other people I talked to felt sad. Then I had to check myself.

Why do I feel sad?

Truth is, I dont know fuck-all about Bhutto except that she looks like a nice woman. Why do I have feelings for someone I know nothing about? People die all the time. To be honest, there are a few public leaders that I wouldn't feel bad about seeing assassinated: Saddam, Osama, ...

Am I sympathetic simply because she is a woman? Was she a good leader? Was she a good person?

A few minutes spent on wikipedia is worth your time. If you thought our government was a mess, read about Pakistan. It makes Florida look like Switzerland.

Benazir Bhutto: Her father was Prime minister, accused of corruption, put to death. She was prime minister in 1988, fired, re-elected in 1993, fired again, goes into exile.

Nawaz Sharif replaces Bhutto in 1990, gets replaced by Bhutto in 1993, then gets re-elected in 1997 only to be shit-canned by Masharraf in 1999.

Pervez Masharraf kicks Sharif out of the country in 1999, disbands much of the government, appoints himself president, befriends our president Bush.

Bhutto, Sharif and Musharraf have been circling each other for decades. After reading some of this Pakistani political history, I still dont know if Bhutto was a good leader/person or not. There seems to be some evidence that she is both incompetent and a crook. But who knows...

What I do know is that we are up to our necks with Pakistan and Musharraf. Bhutto is murdered and the first thing the Prime Minister says is "Al Qaeda did it!!" - is he running for president in Pakistan or in the USA? Amazingly he knows exactly what to say to get America's knee-jerk and unquestioning support.

I dont know why anyone would kill Bhutto but the government claims seem pretty suspicious and a conspiracy would not surprise me one bit. Turns out there have been several hundred bombings in Pakistan in recent years (never makes the news here) and no one ever claims credit or is found. If this were Osama or Al Qaeda, wouldnt they be putting videos on YouTube to proclaim their Jihadi glory?

With all the Bush attention on this past year Iran, few people seem to notice that Pakistan already has a nuclear weapon. Iran appears stable (albeit not too happy about us meddling in their government via the Shah), but Pakistan is a cauldron of unrest and confusion.

Are we saber-rattling the paper tiger while the real one walks right behind us?

Not for the first time, I find myself wondering why the hell we are in Pakistan to begin with. We are there because of Afghanistan, you say? So why are in Afghanistan? Oh right, we went there because of Osama - except he moved to Pakistan?

Suddenly Ron Paul starts to sound a little less crazy. We suck so badly at intervening in other countries like this. Why do we continue to spend billions of tax dollars doing it?

Most Americans have no idea who Bhutto is or what the story is in Pakistan. Most voters probably dont even know what Wikipedia is or where to find Pakistan on a map. Since voters dont know any better, that leaves economic special interests to guide our hand - selling guns, selling oil, selling influence.

Which is probably why we continue to spend billions of tax dollars doing it.