The ostensible claim is that Bhutto has been placed under a “detention order” to protect her from suicide bombers - which is unfortunately not an absolutely, completely, 100% absurd scenario, thanks to last month’s attacks on her - not arrest. You can believe as much of that as you like. I’d like to still think that this might be all staged for the cameras, but I don’t think that we should be counting on that and I emphatically don’t think that the US government should be counting on that, either.

The WaPo has more details on all of this mess: there are precisely two bright spots in all of it. The first is that we’re not at the “people getting shot wholesale” stage. Yet. The second is that there is still the vague sense that neither side is quite yet willing to do something really, really stupid - and irrevocable. Whether either, or both, are bright enough to lighten Pakistan’s gloom remains to be seen.

Moe Lane

PS: On the domestic front: if Senator Barack Obama does not take this opportunity that has fallen into his lap to fulminate about Pakistan, then there is indeed no hope for his candidacy.