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Bolton: US 'helped precipitate' conditions for Bhutto's assassination

Mike Aivaz and Nick Juliano
Published: Friday December 28, 2007

The US has seen its options for dealing with Pakistan crumble with Benazir Bhutto's assassination Thursday, and a former diplomat says American foreign policy decisions helped "precipitate" the former prime minister's death.

John Bolton, former US ambassador to the United Nations, said it was a mistake to collaborate with Bhutto's "desire to get back into the game in Pakistan" and view her as an alternative to the country's current leader, Pervez Musharraf.

"We in effect helped -- helped -- precipitate this dynamic that led to her tragic assassination," Bolton said Thursday on Fox News' Hannity & Colmes. "It's hard to see how that was the road to success."

Bolton said the primary concern of the US needs to be the security of Pakistan's nuclear arsenal. With Bhutto's death plunging the country into chaos, there is now a "very grave danger" the weapons will fall under control of radical Islamist militants within the Pakistani military.

"What we have now is a prescription for chaos," Bolton said.

Another foreign policy expert told RAW STORY Thursday that the death of the opposition leader likely has caused the so-called atomic "Doomsday Clock" to tick closer to midnight.

Thursday night, Bolton told Fox viewers that Musharraf is "the person to put our money on" in hoping for an acceptable resolution to the crisis in Pakistan, although even he faces the threat of assassination.

As soon as Bhutto returned to Pakistan in October -- part of a deal brokered by the US -- she was targeted by assassins in another suicide bombing. US diplomats viewer her as the only hope for maintaining stability and promoting democracy, but Bolton argued perhaps the US acted to quickly in attempting to reform the country.

"You can't say this wasn't foreseeable, and it's obviously led to her death," Bolton said. "Hardly a successful strategy."