The Martyrdom of Benazir Bhutto
Describing the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, the spokesman for her party said, “She has been martyred.” Commenting on Salon.Com, Sadip Roy concludes his remarks with the following,
In Pakistan, the death of Benazir could become the galvanizing force for a mass engagement in the political process. Or it could unleash the kind of revenge-seeking bloodbath that followed the assassination of Indira Gandhi.
“The United States strongly condemns this cowardly act by murderous extremists who are trying to undermine Pakistan’s democracy,” President Bush predictably told reporters in Crawford, Texas. “Those who committed this crime must be brought to justice.” He’s missing the point. This is not an episode of “Law & Order,” where the killers have to be caught and punished. That would be the way to end the story of Benazir Bhutto.
If Washington and Islamabad are really serious about democracy in Pakistan, they would do better to heed the words of Indira Gandhi: “Martyrdom does not end something; it is only a beginning.”
Would that our leaders had thought of this following 9/11, when the perpetrators could have been written off as despicable or insane and the organization behind them treated as criminal instead of the other side in a war, legitimizing their status as heroes to half the world or more.
Posted: December 27th, 2007 under The Big World Out There.
Comments: 4
Comments
Comment from Max
Time: December 28, 2007, 10:59 am
I just read today’s Juan Cole. The situation in Pakistan is awful. Unless something happens really soon, it will go really bad. Think very extreme revolution, and with all those nukes.
Comment from Josh Hammond
Time: December 28, 2007, 12:04 pm
I can’t recall an assassination in the last 20 or 30 years, or longer, that has led to this kind of martydom. It is a nice thought, but I’m not sure it is true. Hopeful, for sure. It hasn’t been true of the assassinations in the Middle East, as best I can recall.
Even the assassination of JFK was the end of something, not the beginning. Maybe Martin Luther King was the beginning of something, but remember his death came in 1968, well after LBJ’s Great Society had been established.
Maybe Bhutto will be different because she is a woman, a Muslim woman?
Comment from I.B.Lever
Time: December 28, 2007, 1:16 pm
” Al-Qaida figure behind attack, Pakistan says
Government also reports Bhutto died of injuries from hitting her head ……”
This should keep Dumbya and Chinny hooked in there for a while longer , meanwhile ( “Osama bin Leaden” us on a wild goose chase all over the countryside,) so let’s keep pouring our bucks into this bullshit democracy. How phuckin’ stupid can one get ?
Is there anyone in Washington at the wheel ?
Comment from Sasha
Time: December 28, 2007, 2:47 pm
Yes. His name is Cheney.
Write a comment