Word: secularation
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Benazir Bhutto's assassination is a body blow to the troubled but strategically vital state of Pakistan. It removes from the scene a secular, liberal, pro-Western leader. It gives momentum to Pakistan's jihadis in their campaign to Talibanize the country, and it edges Pakistan closer toward Islamic revolution. Her death is also, of course, a tragedy for her family, including the three children she leaves motherless. But the horror of Bhutto's end should not blind us to her mediocre legacy, and it is misleading to depict her as any sort of martyr for freedom and democracy...
...nothing to rein in the agency's disastrous policy of training Islamist jihadis to do the ISI's dirty work elsewhere. As a young correspondent covering the conflict in Kashmir in the late 1980s and early '90s, I saw how, during her premiership, Pakistan sidelined the Kashmiris' secular resistance movement and instead gave aid and training to the brutal Islamist groups created and controlled by the government. Had Bhutto taken a more robust stance toward the jihadis her intelligence services were patronizing, it is quite possible that 9/11 would never have happened--and she would still be alive...
...only force capable of taking on the country's landowners and their military cousins. That is why, in recent elections, the Islamists have hugely increased their share of the vote and why they now control much of the west of the country. Benazir Bhutto was a brave, gutsy, secular and liberal woman. But she was a central part of Pakistan's problems, not a solution to them...
...most campaigns, New Year's will involve a lot of work (unlike Christmas, it's a secular holiday, which gives candidates a free pass to stay on the job) - they'll be entering the final sprint to the Jan. 3 caucuses - though most events on Jan. 1 start noticeably late in the day, just in case. Several campaigns considered throwing big bashes with marquee entertainment, but they scratched their plans, worried that glitzy parties wouldn't seem very "Iowan" and that the crowds who turn out on New Year's Eve may not be inclined to come back on caucus...
...members have begun to contemplate who should take over as party leader, a consensus has emerged that the person needs to be a Bhutto, a name that retains incredible power and vote-winning influence in secular Pakistan despite - or perhaps because of - the tragedies and controversies the family has faced. It is not the first time a young Bhutto has taken over from a dead parent. "This was also the situation when Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was murdered," says Babar Awan, a PPP Senator and close ally of Benazir. "Benazir was a teenager, she was a student at Harvard...