Although the current President of Pakistan has survived nine attempts, Benazir is buried today, after an almost fearless attempt, of late, to steer her country away from radicalism and away from perpetual authoritarianism, without the benefit of nine lives herself ...A light for Pakistan, Benazir was at times the hope of a nation that needs a lot of it. The warmth of her flame was chilled, as was that of Indira Ghandi, by radicals within the camp, not enemies outside it - Sadat and Rabin, too, if we're counting.
AN UNQUALIFIED SETBACK IN THE STRUGGLE WITHIN ISLAM
Her loss and the aftermath will bring into high relief the struggle that is going on inside Islam now. As an embodiment of the 'radical middle', she emboldened moderates to take their lives back from the violence foisted on them by the life-destroying pursuits of those enthralled to crippling ideologies.
The backlash within Pakistan will likely be profound. It brings, again, into high relief, the sad (and evil) invitation of terrorism and raises the prospects that some will want to fight terror with terror.
Pundits and pros will make new assessments, no doubt, of the capabilities of groups that have long plagued Pakistan and efforts to trace developments to external 'training grounds', like Afghanistan and Iraq. Some will say that the US helped to eliminate 'training camps' under the Taliban and provided, instead, 'live ammunition training' in Iraq and elsewhere. Others will simply see more of the same.
Oxford educated (I thought it was 80s, but Walter Isaacson says 1970s), Benazir was always a mixture fun and deep social concern. She will be deeply missed by many, I suspect.
[Update: John Moore of the NYT at the scene of the crime, in Rawalpindi, with the last images of Bhutto alive and graphic images of the aftermath.]
