Poll: Do you think we'll see an assassination on a major political leader in our time?

[Hazzard]

I don't believe anyone can manage it anymore, but I believe that people will try.
Instead Riots and blowing stuff up is the future of terrorism. I will not be surprised if someone drops a bomb on downing street though.

 

[Treblaine]

Yes. We already have. Gadaffi.

Heh, I'm not sure "assassination" is the right word for what happened there.

Political cloak and dagger stuff is still perfectly possible, Viktor Yushchenko knows this only too well. That guy is lucky to be alive when someone so clearly wanted him dead.

Assassination is simply the murder of an important person. The Transition Council said they didn't want him to be killed, so therefore he was murdered. "cloak and dagger" is no necessary element.

 

[Treblaine]

The thing is, the type of people who are crazy enough to want to kill a political leader are also so mentally deficient that they cannot outsmart the security. It's like a straight jacket, Houdini said that he didn't make the straight jacket obsolete by how he was able to so easily escape from them because the type of analytical mind needed to escape a straight jacket is precisely the type that would stop you ever end up getting put in one.

Depends on the leaders. People like the PotUS have massive protection, yeah (though they've learnt that the hard way), not necessarily everyone else. Trying to murder your rulers seesm to be more popular in the US then certain other western states, nobody has even tried to murder an Australian PM, for example (besides Holt conspiracy theories).

Buckingham palace has had a few security scares a while back, where randoms got much furhter in than they should.

Well I do seem to rememberer recently the Australian Prime Minister had to be rushed away from a violent and angry mob who looked like they were about to lynch her?

Royal Family and UK Government have had MANY assassination attempts, mostly from militant Irish republicans. The Queen's uncle was killed and the rest of his close family and friends when his boat was blown up by an IRA bomb. Margaret Thatcher had her closest adviser die in an IRA car-bomb.

Remember, Lee Harvey Oswald was an ardent communist who he had defected to the Soviet Union. Whether he actually was hired as a soviet agent, was somehow encouraged to kill the VERY hawkish US President (Who coined the term "Missile gap" and was more committed than any to opposing Communism with military force) or if it was just a convergence of ideals... it's impossible to say, there is conflicting and unreliable evidence either way. If there was any conspiracy theory in the JFK assassination, the worrying part is how it leads to the Soviet government, not the US Establishment.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Well I do seem to rememberer recently the Australian Prime Minister had to be rushed away from a violent and angry mob who looked like they were about to lynch her?

Not exactly, there was an angry mob (predominantly Aboriginal) yelling at the leader of the opposition over something racist he said the day or so before, she just happened to be in the same building and had to be hurried out, leaving a shoe behind which was stolen by the mob and put on ebay.

it's impossible to say, there is conflicting and unreliable evidence either way. If there was any conspiracy theory in the JFK assassination, the worrying part is how it leads to the Soviet government, not the US Establishment.

Eh, I like the one about the conspiracy theories being egged on by the KGB to discredit the US government, only that's far too plausible for a conspiracy theory.

 

[LooK iTz Jinjo]

You can have our opposition leader... No seriously, please take him!

Spoiler

[http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/521/tonyabbott.jpg/]

Didn't the Pakistani opposition leader get shot and killed a few years ago? She was someone of importance at least, if not the opposition leader.

 

[Arif_Sohaib]

You can have our opposition leader... No seriously, please take him!

Spoiler

[http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/521/tonyabbott.jpg/]

Didn't the Pakistani opposition leader get shot and killed a few years ago? She was someone of importance at least, if not the opposition leader.

Her name was Benizer Bhutto. She was one of the most corrupt politicians in the country and her husband and our current president Asif Ali Zardari is much much worse. Our Prime Minister was just ousted yesterday by our Chief Justice for defying Supreme Court orders to write a letter to the Swiss to continue investigation of Zardari's corruption and the next guy Zardari proposed for Prime Minister just received an arrest warrant for involvement in narcotics(he was our health minister).
The Balochistan Chief Minister and another one of Zardari's supporters has said "a degree is a degree weather real or fake", he said this when the educational degrees of several ministers were under scrutiny for being fake(and several were found to be fake).

Don't tell me these kind of people don't deserve to be assassinated.

 

[Absimilliard]

According to statistics both for assassinations and my remaining lifetime; yes, probably.

 

[Uber Evil]

You can have our opposition leader... No seriously, please take him!

Spoiler

[http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/521/tonyabbott.jpg/]

Didn't the Pakistani opposition leader get shot and killed a few years ago? She was someone of importance at least, if not the opposition leader.

Her name was Benizer Bhutto. She was one of the most corrupt politicians in the country and her husband and our current president Asif Ali Zardari is much much worse. Our Prime Minister was just ousted yesterday by our Chief Justice for defying Supreme Court orders to write a letter to the Swiss to continue investigation of Zardari's corruption and the next guy Zardari proposed for Prime Minister just received an arrest warrant for involvement in narcotics(he was our health minister).
The Balochistan Chief Minister and another one of Zardari's supporters has said "a degree is a degree weather real or fake", he said this when the educational degrees of several ministers were under scrutiny for being fake(and several were found to be fake).

Don't tell me these kind of people don't deserve to be assassinated.

People like that don't deserve to die. Maybe get ousted and kicked out the country, but killing them would not really solve anything.

 

[Dangit2019]

Seriously though? I'm not sure. That's the thing about assassinations, they're usually characterized by their unexpectedness.

 

[Kargathia]

A fact often overlooked in this era with the collective memory of a goldfish is that "our lifetime" is quite a while.

In the US already it's hitting a rough average of an assassination every 50 years (4 assassinated presidents, 200 years existence). Throw all the other developed nations into the mix, and I would be genuinely surprised if I don't get to see one.

 

[RaikuFA]

Obamas, Merkels, Camerons

Merkel and Cameron aren't heads of state

Can't speak for Merkel but Cameron might as well be. Assassinating the fucking Queen will have no impact on the political landscape of the country, it'll just depress a shit-ton of Royalists. You need to go after the guy who makes the actual decisions, the Prime Minister.

OT: I don't think we'll see one in the Western countries but in more turbulent countries, like in the Middle East, it wouldn't surprise me.

Though that said, I'm genuinely surprised that some deranged lunatic hasn't taken a shot at Obama yet...

well didn't the Libyan leader get killed I forgot his name already though so that's practically an assassination

Gaddafi, his name was Gaddafi.

As MB said "2011 was not a year to be a bad guy."

 

[Psykoma]

And applying this to Political leaders, their security aren't dummies.


The thing is, the type of people who are crazy enough to want to kill a political leader are also so mentally deficient that they cannot outsmart the security. It's like a straight jacket, Houdini said that he didn't make the straight jacket obsolete by how he was able to so easily escape from them because the type of analytical mind needed to escape a straight jacket is precisely the type that would stop you ever end up getting put in one.

Political assassination is not the worry right now, it's relatively easy to protect one man or woman. The problem today is protecting EVERYONE ELSE!

While I would agree in principle, that's not allllwayyys true.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andr%C3%A9_Dallaire

Paranoid schizophrenic (Dallaire) got into the home of prime minister of canada, had to be fought off by the prime minister (or his wife, it's unsure who did the actual fighting) while waiting 7 minutes for security to arrive, because the first officer to arrive had forgotten his key, called his supervisor to find out what to do, and they decided to form a perimiter first instead of entering to ensure safety...lol.


Then three years later a drunk guy was able to wander onto the property as well..

 

[FantomOmega]

I wouldn't be surprised if Obama was shot as he was re-elected again.

I'm not saying I want him to be but considering the damage he's caused and people are wanting him out of office who knows what could happen.

As a Non-American all I see a man wanting to make some (not all of them) decent changes but is constantly pushed back by a system too ingrained in corruption to change for the better, the end result is even more suffering from the clash of interests of the people vs interests of the profit.

Corporate lobbying is legal bribing and the MOST dangerous thing to your country to me, you people hardly get a say in the matter in most Legislation decisions.
Land of the FREE my ass

Killing him wont change a thing only make it WORSE with the global and State wide panic this would cause. you should have made this poll about DICTATORS that could be be assassinated instead

 

[DJjaffacake]

Head of State

Merkels, Camerons

I assume you meant national leaders rather than Heads of State.

Yes. We already have. Gadaffi.

Heh, I'm not sure "assassination" is the right word for what happened there.

Political cloak and dagger stuff is still perfectly possible, Viktor Yushchenko knows this only too well. That guy is lucky to be alive when someone so clearly wanted him dead.

There's this, of course, but that was an attempt on a future leader, so I'm not sure it counts. Otherwise, yeah, I'm pretty sure Putin or whoever's in charge of China aren't above ordering the assassination of the troublesome leader of a neighbouring country, and you can never discount terrorist attacks or crazies like that guy that went for Reagan.

 

[Elementary - Dear Watson]

Yes. We already have. Gadaffi.

Quoted for truth...

Assassination: "Alternatively, assassination may be defined as "the act of deliberately killing someone, especially a public figure, usually for hire or for political reasons.""

So, that is what we saw in Libya when Qadaffi was murdered by his opposition...

 

[Terminate421]

I wouldn't be surprised if Obama was shot as he was re-elected again.

I'm not saying I want him to be but considering the damage he's caused and people are wanting him out of office who knows what could happen.

As a Non-American all I see a man wanting to make some (not all of them) decent changes but is constantly pushed back by a system too ingrained in corruption to change for the better, the end result is even more suffering from the clash of interests of the people vs interests of the profit.

Corporate lobbying is legal bribing and the MOST dangerous thing to your country to me, you people hardly get a say in the matter in most Legislation decisions.
Land of the FREE my ass

Killing him wont change a thing only make it WORSE with the global and State wide panic this would cause. you should have made this poll about DICTATORS that could be be assassinated instead

He said major political figure.

Besides, here in my country, we have idiots. I never supported obama but there are a few times where I sat down and thought "maybe he is trying to do something nice for once". Then my cousin who is a local security over in DC tells me all his speechs are VIP'd to hell. In essence, he says his speechs only to his followers.

Either way, I stopped caring for what he did after '10.

Its not gun control that will stop it, its either laziness or just tightened security.

 

[Andy Shandy]

Head of State

Merkels, Camerons

I assume you meant national leaders rather than Heads of State.

Yeah, pretty much, I should probably change the title.

 

[Treblaine]

Yes. We already have. Gadaffi.

Quoted for truth...

Assassination: "Alternatively, assassination may be defined as "the act of deliberately killing someone, especially a public figure, usually for hire or for political reasons.""

So, that is what we saw in Libya when Qadaffi was murdered by his opposition...

Yes, killed by his POLITICAL OPPOSITION! It wan't personal. He was killed for his politics.

By your own definition he was assassinated.