Among the more over-the-top encomia heaped upon Benazir Bhutto was that she was a stalwart enemy of terrorism. In a New York Times op-ed, author William Dalrymple notes that “Bhutto was apparently the victim of Islamist militant groups that she allowed to flourish under her administrations in the 1980s and 1990s.†He adds:
It was under Ms. Bhutto’s watch that the Pakistani intelligence agency, Inter-Services Intelligence, first installed the Taliban in Afghanistan. It was also at that time that hundreds of young Islamic militants were recruited from the madrassas to do the agency’s dirty work in Indian Kashmir. It seems that, like some terrorist equivalent of Frankenstein’s monster, the extremists turned on both the person and the state that had helped bring them into being. …
[T]he obituaries painting her as dying to save democracy distort history. Instead, she was a natural autocrat who did little for human rights, a calculating politician who was complicit in Pakistan’s becoming the region’s principal jihadi paymaster while she also ramped up an insurgency in Kashmir that has brought two nuclear powers to the brink of war.
The same day The Washington Post published an op-ed by Bhutto’s estranged husband – who is also allegedly complicit in the murder of her brother, Murzata – Asif Ali Zardari (AKA “Mr. Ten Percentâ€) ,“The Duty My Wife Left Us,†which made The Stiletto gag (he even quoted John F. Kennedy!):
Last week the world was shocked, and my life was shattered, by the murder of my beloved wife … Benazir was willing to lay down her life for what she believed in – for the future of a democratic, moderate, progressive Pakistan. She stood up to dictators and fanatics, those who would distort and defy our constitution and those who would defame the Muslim holy book by violence and terrorism. My pain and the pain of our children is unimaginable. But I feel even worse for a world that will have to move forward without this extraordinary bridge between cultures, religions and traditions.
No doubt, there will be naifs who take this smarmy op-ed – probably written with the help of a high-powered PR firm – at face value and laud his “guts†in soldiering on amidst his grief to bring “democracy†to Pakistan.
Note: The Stiletto writes about politics and other stuff at The Stiletto Blog.
4 users commented in " Bhutto And Terrorism: She Reaped What She Sowed "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackI used to live in Pakistan and the fear of the Tribal areas aligning with Afhganistan, or becoming independant has gone on longer than the late 80’s or 90’s. The Kashmir conflict has gone on a lot longer than thant, also.
It can all be traced to 1947 when the British left and created the countries of Pakistan and India. In fact, in the first Kashmiri conflict in 1947, the tribesmen were invoked in an (unsucessful) jihad to free Kashmir.
You’re right that the Taliban was probably a misguided attempt top control this problem and it is now backfiring on the people of Pakistan.
It is a sad state of affairs.
Apoologize for the two typos. A pop-up ad prevented me from seeing what I was commenting on.
The US press sees a nice looking female and sees a fairy queen who can do no wrong.
And don’t forget: Her brothers were terrorists.
Ed: Agree with you about the pop-up. Have had the same problem.
Nancy: You are spot on!
The obits The Stiletto read were unbelievably divorced from the ugly reality. You would have to be an utter ignoramus not to know that throughout her life Bhutto embraced terrorism and violence, not battled it. But then, there are a lot of wannabe pundits – and even established commentators – out there who don’t know sh*t from shinola but nonetheless feel compelled to write pompous crap that only serves to highlght how much they don’t know.
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