Regardless of however one might feel about the corruption charges that were once levelled at her and her husband (perhaps out of political motivation), Benazir Bhutto was an incredibly courageous woman and a sincere believer in democracy. She may have been the last great hope for Pakistan to break out of a death spiral of chaos. Her loss is a great tragedy.
The reports coming out about her assassination have been strange, conflicting, and sketchy. Who was responsible for her death? The al Qaeda/Taliban militants? General Musharraf? Both? All of the competing political factions within Pakistan? Was the US partly responsible, in putting intense pressure on her to risk her life in coming out of a comfortable exile in London and Dhubai, while putting insufficient pressure on Musharraf to look after her security, even after a failed assassination attempt in October?
What is happening in Pakistan is incredibly perilous for the entire world, and is one of the most under-reported stories out there. See Newsweek's October article, The Most Dangerous Nation In the World Isn't Iraq. It's Pakistan.
Meanwhile, in the US, with our strange propensity to mix news with entertainment, while out troops in the mountains of Afghanistan are attacked by militants crossing the border with impunity from Pakistan, we invite thugs like Musharraf to crack jokes on The Daily Show with John Stewart.
5 comments:
Are you reading the Karachi metroblog? Literally all hell is breaking loose over there.
http://karachi.metblogs.com/
My gosh, it sure sounds like it, doesn't it? And those photos on Flickr? Awful.
Yeah I know...kind of puts a lot of things in perspective.
I thought she was very brave. Wish I knew more about the politics of this area.
Hi Crystal,
It does get kind of labyrinthine, doesn't it?
Labyrinthine... That's my Building WordPower word of the day. :-)
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