"But Bhutto was corrupt..."

[WilliamPitt]

A tragedy born of military despotism and anarchy

The assassination of Benazir Bhutto heaps despair upon Pakistan. Now her party must be democratically rebuilt

Tariq Ali
Friday December 28, 2007
The Guardian

Even those of us sharply critical of Benazir Bhutto's behaviour and policies - both while she was in office and more recently - are stunned and angered by her death. Indignation and fear stalk the country once again.

An odd coexistence of military despotism and anarchy created the conditions leading to her assassination in Rawalpindi yesterday. In the past, military rule was designed to preserve order - and did so for a few years. No longer. Today it creates disorder and promotes lawlessness. How else can one explain the sacking of the chief justice and eight other judges of the country's supreme court for attempting to hold the government's intelligence agencies and the police accountable to courts of law? Their replacements lack the backbone to do anything, let alone conduct a proper inquest into the misdeeds of the agencies to uncover the truth behind the carefully organised killing of a major political leader.

How can Pakistan today be anything but a conflagration of despair? It is assumed that the killers were jihadi fanatics. This may well be true, but were they acting on their own?

Benazir, according to those close to her, had been tempted to boycott the fake elections, but she lacked the political courage to defy Washington. She had plenty of physical courage, and refused to be cowed by threats from local opponents. She had been addressing an election rally in Liaquat Bagh. This is a popular space named after the country's first prime minister, Liaquat Ali Khan, who was killed by an assassin in 1953. The killer, Said Akbar, was immediately shot dead on the orders of a police officer involved in the plot. Not far from here, there once stood a colonial structure where nationalists were imprisoned. This was Rawalpindi jail. It was here that Benazir's father, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, was hanged in April 1979. The military tyrant responsible for his judicial murder made sure the site of the tragedy was destroyed as well.

Zulfikar Ali Bhutto's death poisoned relations between his Pakistan People's party and the army. Party activists, particularly in the province of Sind, were brutally tortured, humiliated and, sometimes, disappeared or killed.

Pakistan's turbulent history, a result of continuous military rule and unpopular global alliances, confronts the ruling elite now with serious choices. They appear to have no positive aims. The overwhelming majority of the country disapproves of the government's foreign policy. They are angered by its lack of a serious domestic policy except for further enriching a callous and greedy elite that includes a swollen, parasitic military. Now they watch helplessly as politicians are shot dead in front of them.

Benazir had survived the bomb blast yesterday but was felled by bullets fired at her car. The assassins, mindful of their failure in Karachi a month ago, had taken out a double insurance this time. They wanted her dead. It is impossible for even a rigged election to take place now. It will have to be postponed, and the military high command is no doubt contemplating another dose of army rule if the situation gets worse, which could easily happen.

What has happened is a multilayered tragedy. It's a tragedy for a country on a road to more disasters. Torrents and foaming cataracts lie ahead. And it is a personal tragedy. The house of Bhutto has lost another member. Father, two sons and now a daughter have all died unnatural deaths.

More: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,2232700,00.html

[La Lioness Priyanka]

1. bhutto was considered corrupt and part of a political dynasty that was corrupt

however her death is shocking and destabilizing to the region.

not to mention people change, maybe this time she was coming back to make better social changes to her country.

unfortunately, thanks to this senseless killing we will never find out.

[H2O Man]

2. Very good.

It is important that we read articles such as this one, so that we can appreciate what happened yesterday. Bhutta was not without fault, and it would be a disservice to make her into the next plaster saint. It is the fact that, dispite her faults, when she saw the need and the opportunity to try to stand up for democracy, she was willing to put her life on the line. She could have opted for a comfortable life, on the sidelines. But she heeded the call of history. It is her humanity and her bravery that make her death stand out.

Beyond that, her death also is a flashing red light that signals that we are entering a more dangerous territory. It was a place that Bhutta was attempting to help the Pakistani people avoid.


Nominated.

[KharmaTrain]

3. That's Why This Is Tough To Completely Comprehend

and easy to manipulate. The byzantine structure of Pakistan turns good guys into bad ones and can lead to many conclusions or assertions.

I'm saddened with Mrs. Bhutto's death, but I'm far from shocked. Her return amped up a lot of emotion and violence in a country that has experienced one corrupt dictator after another. It's also a country with diverse population and interests that make it virtually ungovernable in a federal model and the army makes sure it stays that way. It's also torn between the wars and strife on their western flank (Afghanistan) while consumed with the long-hated India on the east. These divides make the military the center of all power and either you're with 'em or again' 'em.

I'm still not sure who in involved here, but the motivation to silence Bhutto and, by association, her proxy (the boosh regime) is loud and clear. It was a move to up the ante on Musharaf...see if he stays a civilian or jumps back in the uniform. And, as usual, this regime and its corporate media enablers try to simplify the situation...the can't jump on the word "Al Queda" fast enough.

[Kurovski]

4. K&R. (nt)

[Major Hogwash]

5. May we all be so corrupt - that we give up our lives fighting for Democracy.

Because you know Flyboy Bush wouldn't even show up on the day he was supposed to take a frickin' drug test!!

If only America had someone with the fortitude and courage of Bhutto!

How many of our candidates would run for office knowing they would be targets for assassination and that the government wouldn't give them protection?

[greenman3610]

6. corrupt maybe. but I'm in awe of her guts.

[mntleo2]

7. It Somehow Sounds Familiar ...

They are angered by its lack of a serious domestic policy except for further enriching a callous and greedy elite that includes a swollen, parasitic military.

Wink, wink, nod nod ...sounds like another country with whom we all know. I wonder when mayhem is going to descend on it? Perhaps after the rich "legally" acquire everything that moves, tramples on everyone else's rights but their own, gut and strip the whole nation of everything it owns and hoards it in some unknown fetid cave in Paraguay? Greed is the true pandemic and it is killing millions, as well as destroying freedom and democracy. Greed has no borders.

Have I mentioned today how much I hate these people?

Cat in Seattle

[blondeatlast]

8. GREAT article that ought to be a must-read. One line stands out:

It is impossible for even a rigged election to take place now. It will have to be postponed, and the military high command is no doubt contemplating another dose of army rule if the situation gets worse, which could easily happen.

US interests are damned if we do, damned if we don't (call for postponement or going forward with the elections), and I don't think our woefully incompetent State Department (I'm talking to you, Condi) has a clue what is rreally at stake here.

[EFerrari]

12. Why would Washington believe the election could be clean

in the first place?

And, why attempt to insert Bhutto instead of backing the organic democratic movement inside Pakistan? Remember those lawyers and judges?

This was a debacle and it's not to much of a stretch to say that our State Department killed Bhutto just as surely as if they had shot her themselves.

[L. Coyote]

9. ? FAMILIAR ? "attempting to hold the government's intelligence agencies and the police accountable"

A few comments. Was the bomb intended to kill the assassin, or aid escape of the assasin? Or, to deliver a more powerful message to those who would step forward into Bhutto's shadow and lead the party as prime minister soon.

The election should not be postponed. It is a parliamentary system, and she was not a candidate for President. The Parliament can still be elected, and should be ASAP, given these events. Delaying the movement to democracy would just be like a second bomb, more destructive to democracy than the first.

[Emit]

10. Mark Siegel, Bhutto advisor, speaks about those charges of corruption

Corruption charges
MARGARET WARNER: Actually, let me -- let me just -- let me just interrupt you for a second and get back to Mark Siegel. And then I will get right back to you.

But, Mr. Siegel, her two terms as prime minister, as we know, were definitely faulted for both sort of management incompetence and also on allegations of corruption. Now, publicly, she always said: "Well, nothing has ever been proven. I have never been convicted."

But was she any more reflective or forthcoming about that in private? What did she say about that?

MARK SIEGEL: Well, first, she was very constrained in both two terms by the intelligence agencies, by the military, by the establishment. She never had firm control of the government because of -- because of them.

Charges were brought against her for -- for corruption. But there -- that's what -- when you bring down anyone in Pakistan, under the constitution, you charge incompetence and corruption, including the chief minister, who -- the supreme court chief justice, who was brought down again for the same charge.

She was never convicted of any of these things. With all...

MARGARET WARNER: But...

MARK SIEGEL: But, no, with all of the ammunition of the government against her, she was never convicted. Her husband was in jail for 11 years and was never convicted.

Saying all of that, she's learned a great deal. She was ready to be a great prime minister for a third term. She understood modernity. She was a bridge between East and West. She was a bridge within Islam between -- between the forces of Islam. And she understood that extremism thrives under dictatorship. And she was determined to stop that.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/asia/july-dec07/bhutto_12-27.html

[EFerrari]

11. He's on Amy's show today and just said something very interesting.

He said the problem is not that jihadis can take control of Pakistan -- the was the excuse for inserting Bhutto. He said the problem is Afghanistan, with an occupation that is failing and America in negotiation with the Taliban.

As usual, BushCo has projected ita own failure.