By now, anyone who pays even bare attention to the news is probably aware that Benazir Bhutto, lead of the political opposition in Pakistan, was assassinated early this morning after a combined shooting/suicide bomb attack.
Leaving aside the alleged corruption in her past — and possibly drinking freely of the kool-aid on CNN — I very much hope that Benazir Bhutto was what the media and her supporters says she was: a bold, brave woman willing to risk her life in her quest for a secular, democratic Pakistan.
While we’ve got politicians vying for their respective party nominations here in the States, preaching their platforms from the relative safety of an Iowa school or a New Hampshire town hall, Bhutto came out of exile and returned to a country to run for a third term as Prime Minister, knowing full well the risks she faced, in order to see her country securely democratic. It’s refreshing to see such courage from a politician, a courage in the vein of some of this country’s own founders, who risked their lives rebelling from the British Crown if their revolution failed.
May you find in death the peace that escaped you in life, Benazir Bhutto.