She was a bad guy -- not because she was evil per se, but because she, of ALL the people who played a role in the politics of the region, had the best chance of rising above the tribalism and sectarian bullshit and moving her country forward into the 19th century, at least, if not the 20th or 21st. She went to Harvard, and Oxford, or maybe Cambridge, but you get the idea. She was smart, and had a world vision, and commanded respect locally and globally, and talked the talk.
But instead of walking the walk, she and her husband stole $684 million and built castles all across England while giving crap back to her starving countrymen and tacitly encouraging the psychopathic two-party (two tribe, really) political system that has now taken her life. So be it.
Thursday, December 27, 2007
R.I.P.
Wondering whether Benazir was a good guy or a bad guy? Here's an analysis from someone in the know.
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4 comments:
So would we say the Islamist running or Musharraf are better options for Pakistan??
It's not like there are a lot of choices left! What a nightmare.
I am certainly not saying that she was a saint, but I think she was the best opportunity the country had for some sort of democracy. Musharraf is corrupt.
I think we need to to be very careful in our foreign relations with this country.
Bhutto was massively corrupt, and was actually thrown out of office two different times for just that! (If you don't learn from history, you're doomed to repeat it...). All she did was talk democracy while filling her pockets -- dazzling the West with her erudition like a Harvard-educated three-card monte player. It's a hugely corrupt system, and Musharraf actually cleaned it up a little. He's a crappy little dictator, but would Benazir have been better, or been more democratic, whatever that means in the Pakistan context? Look at her previous two terms for the answer.
But you're VERY right that we have to be very careful with our relations there -- which we've never been to date, going back as far as you'd like...
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