Now we have the late Benazir Bhutto talking to us from beyond the grave. She is alleged to have sent Wolf Blitzer of CNN an email "to be opened only in the event of her death", in which she blamed President Pervez Musharraf for her assassination, BEFORE SHE DIED!
This is political gamesmanship in the extreme, and if true, it raises the suspicion, in my mind, that she courted death as a martyr. She knew that Musharraf was too strong to bring down by any means she could devise or any coalition she might string together in that fractious land, so she (at least) considered playing the ultimate card, the martyr card, thinking that she could beat both Musharraf AND the Islamists in that final hand of showdown poker with that card. The Islamists, of course, would have to recognize her martyr status, since martyrdom is their main psy-op weapon AND their main philosophical go-to device.
Of course, this is all contingent in believing CNN, who INVENTED managed news.
The way I see it, the believability factor here is somewhat less than even.
This is entirely too dramatic. Reminds me of old cowboy movies, this "deliver this letter to the Sheriff if the cattle baron's gunslingers kill me" sort of thing.
OK, on to some family experience with the Bhutto clan. When I was a lad, my brother and sister and I went to school in England while my Dad was stationed there with the Navy. We went to English schools. My sis had a classmate whose father was killed on orders of Benazir Bhutto's father, a Pakistani strongman of the era who was later deposed and executed by the next strongman.
Lest readers get carried away with ideas of sainthood for Benazir Bhutto, read deeply in Pakistani history about the family and the political movement (the Pakistani People's Party) it founded. You will find that it resembles some other revolutionary movements very closely, and those were all Marxist.
The recent history of the Islamic sector of the world is best simplified into analyses of conflicts. When the history of Pakistan is reviewed, that analysis breaks down into political strongmen vs. Marxist revolutionaries, just as the conflicts in Iraq and Egypt have developed (look up the Ba'ath Party).
It's all in the history books already. Nothing new here to see. Move along, please.
van der Leun linked to this:
http://unqualified-reservations.blogspot.com/2007/12/benazir-bhutto-mob-hit-in-pakistan.html
It is long but worth a read. He says Bhutto was just the most prominent member of one of three groups struggling for power in the country.
Posted by: Morenuancedthanyou | December 29, 2007 at 12:12