Bhutto's Assassination

It's happened again -- in one deadly act of violence, the radicals have won yet another battle. Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was murdered in the run up to the country's farce of an election. The motivation of the murderer can only be inferred at this point -- but I think I can safely say that it wasn't an act of an individual. There were many that wanted Bhutto dead. She was a woman twice elected to lead a muslim state -- and twice deposed on trumped up corruption charges. She was the only real challenger to President Musharraf in the upcoming election, in which Musharraf is attempting to retain control of the country.

I'm sure Bhutto had her faults -- she was after all a politician -- but she represented a refreshing choice in a country that desperately needs a choice. She would not have been the choice of the United States, as her credentials in dealing with terrorism is lacking -- but her committment to democracy is without question. And therein lies the lost to Pakistan. What will come next will surely be more of the same, and a continued slide towards totalitarianism. In the wake of this loss, the world will certainly make the obligatory noise demanding change -- but with no reprecussions attached to those demands, there will be no change.

We should not let this murder be quietly swept under the rug. Our collective democracy, freedom and justice demands more.