Much Ado About Not Much...

[DerickM 1]

As is obvious to anybody with access to the news, Pakistani politician Benazir Bhutto was assassinated today.

The general template places her in the position of martyr. In reality, she's nothing of the sort.

Descended from a long line of aristocrats and feudal lords, her 'dramatic rise to power' and subsequent campaign for democracy was all just part of the family business. If you ask me, the only thing about a lack of democracy that offended her was the fact that it left her own family out of power.

Her assassination is not all that newsworthy in it's context. Assassination is just another way of doing politics among her kind, who have ruled, or attempted to rule, Pakistan since before it's founding. And as corrupt and ineffective as her previous tenure as Prime Minister was, is it any surprise that somebody out there thought it a national duty to eliminate her for good?

She was no more in a position to add stability to a region that has never known it than the current dictatorial regime, or any member of the other ruling family of Pakistan.

Pakistan is a troubled land.

It will stay that way.

It's best we just left it alone, and let the partisans go ahead and off each other in their Quest for power.

And don't cry for the Bhutto family. They still have all that ill-gotten money and the national prestige and connections to acquire more of it, and soon, another Bhutto will rise to the forefront of Pakistani politics as a champion of the nation, like a monarchy that will not die.

[green 6]

Pakistan certainly is much more fcked up than its neighbour, India, and it is being left increasingly behind in the economic development of this subcontinent. Pakistan has nuclear capabilities and this is disturbing. It is already caught up in a long standing brawl with India over the question of who owns Kashmir. And the original partition of the subcontinent of India, something which was decided upon by the departing British Raj in 1947, into Muslim Pakistan and Hindu India, turned into a blood thirsty nightmare where families were forced to move depending on their religion and where millions of people were brutally slaughtered. (For people who want to know more there are a few good and utterly heart-breaking movies made about this era.)

At present Pakistan is under martial law and its current government is friendly to the west. However, Pakistan, unlike India, is not economically prospering, is not a successfully developing country but is in fact a country which is drifting backwards towards feudalism. This brings Pakistani people emotionally much closer to Afghanistan, and this should be of concern to the west.

Bhutto was of enormous value to the west. She was educated, a woman, and a modernist. She also had a serious fan base which was why she was assassinated. The issue of her being part of the elite and an insider is, I think, entirely irrelevant when viewed in the context of the Realpolitik of this nation. The truth is that no outsider would be considered seriously by the local folks unless he was a charlatan, some kind of magic-talking imam or whatever. Such an individual would be immoderate and impossible for the western nations to work with. Bhutto would have brought some corruption with her regime but not so much.......

[transformer 1]

While watching television coverage of the Bhutto assassination story, I was left wondering why everyone felt the need to express their "grief" by killing each other and practically burning down Pakistan. I just don't understand their culture I guess.

I wonder how long it will take for her teenage son (who was just named the head of her opposition party) to be offed as well?