Pakistan's girl leader of the Pakistan Peoples Party was taken out in a Syrian/Russian style double tap hit today that included at least one gunman and a bomb. Weapons fire at close range and the ensuing explosion killed 20 people. Benazir Bhutto - like girls everwhere was one complicated person. Oxford, Yale - speaking better English than most Americans she also had the canny knack for imbibing projections and magically transforming herself into what ever her sitch or audience or constits required. She could appear like Golda Meir or Joan of Arc and often invoked Indiri Ghandi's model.
Despite all the image, spin and sweet talking Western talk, Benazir may have been little different from politicians through out history - cutting deals for buds and homies and occasionally sort of dipping in to the kitty for personal chicanery.
Surviving multiple botched assassination attempted hits never really sank in to her - riding about in open cars and speaking at massive polit rallies. An everyday thing in her world - after her dad and brother were murdered - maybe it was like the norm.
Slate commissioned her to write a diary for publication a decade ago. In a very prophetic bit that has a new meaning today, she referred to Ceaser's Women by Colleen McCullough:
"Here we are heading towards the third millennium, and the conduct of men and
women still mirrors the style of Caesar's age. Does time go forward or backward
or just stand still? Do we fight the same demons in each era and in each century
only with different methods and in different styles? Are we condemned to a cycle
of patterns that keeps turning and ending up where it started?"
She was a strong, courageous woman. I so admired her spirit and her determination to go back to her country and fulfill what she thought was her obligation to lead it into a western type of democracy.
ReplyDeleteShe was no saint, true. But she was quite a leader and a woman.
I doubt that Musharraf is crying over Bhutto's assasination. In October, on the first attempt on Bhutto's life where almost 140 people were killed in a homicide bombing, no one claimed responsibility then, and Musharraf didn't appear to host an investigation, nor did he offer to up her security. Her security advisors have been complaining about her security - or lack of it - for months. Same as today; no one has officially claimed responsibility, which is odd, especially when Muslim terror groups enjoy the spotlight of announcement. No siree, something's not right here. It looks very much like an inside job. Viva Islam, eh?
ReplyDeleteI've always been told to look at who benefits the most from a crime. It's hard to argue that anyone would be helped more than Musharraf. I can't make up my mind if her return was courageous or foolhardy.
ReplyDelete"Are we condemned to a cycle
ReplyDeleteof patterns that keeps turning and ending up where it started?"
You have to wonder, don't you?
"Are we condemned to a cycle
ReplyDeleteof patterns that keeps turning and ending up where it started?"
i'd like to think not, but it seems that we humans are by and large utterly incapable of learning from the mistakes of history. we seem to think we can do the same thing and it will somehow turn out different "this time". definition of insanity anyone?
A tragic turn of events in Pakistan for which we cannot accurately guess as to what shall unfold in the next few weeks.
ReplyDeleteThat Ceaser's Woman passage is most "prophetic" but it troubles me to suggest that there is truth in it. I guess I don't like the thought of being "condemned" for it suggests that we a doomed to a course of events largely out of our control. a wicked thought that...
Nice, quick analysis, Courtney!
ReplyDeleteBhutto, for all her faults, was an awesome freedom crusader. I have truly mourned her loss, and I firmly believe that her death is a reminder of how important our struggle for freedom in the world is today.
Hi Courtney :) Just in case you and your readers are interested, I've done an extensive series on Bhutto and can be read here.
ReplyDeleteThat should be a good read. She had her faults for sure, but she was the best option we had.
ReplyDeleteI hear that elections have been postponed until March, but who will run?
Debbie Hamilton
Right Truth