The Benazir Bhutto Assassination and Politics of HypocrisyDecember 27, 2007
The breaking news that Pakistan's former prime minister (and a stauch anti-Musharraf, elite-liberal politician) Benazir Bhutto has been assassinated in Rawalpindi today will send shock waves throughout South Asia and around the world.
I hope we keep a close eye on the event and watch how CNN, New York Times, Washington Post, BBC, etc. put a spin on the story; already, so-called foreign-policy experts invited by the media are distorting facts. This development is major and could prove to be a new playfield for the war mongering establishment that's looking for ways to begin a new war.
According to first news reports, Ms. Bhutto was gunned down in her car by one or more suicide bombers who then blew themselves up. It happened after she spoke at an election rally in the garrison city, in the midst of an "extremely tight security."
We must condemn such a barbaric assassination as well as the inept -- some say indifferent or complicit -- role of the U.S.-blessed military dictator Musharraf, who even CNN says failed to protect one of the few elected woman leaders in the Muslim world. This is significant because in another Muslim-majority South Asian country Bangladesh, two former elected prime ministers -- both women -- have recently been put in prison by pro-U.S. military-backed rulers. We have enough reason to believe their lives are in jeopardy too. In India also, as we may remember, Indira Gandhi was assassinated in 1984 by, many say, CIA-backed extremist separatists.
It's preaching democracy on the surface, yet practicing war and violence on the ground. We must condemn that hypocrisy.
I hope we keep a close eye on the event and watch how CNN, New York Times, Washington Post, BBC, etc. put a spin on the story; already, so-called foreign-policy experts invited by the media are distorting facts. This development is major and could prove to be a new playfield for the war mongering establishment that's looking for ways to begin a new war.
According to first news reports, Ms. Bhutto was gunned down in her car by one or more suicide bombers who then blew themselves up. It happened after she spoke at an election rally in the garrison city, in the midst of an "extremely tight security."
We must condemn such a barbaric assassination as well as the inept -- some say indifferent or complicit -- role of the U.S.-blessed military dictator Musharraf, who even CNN says failed to protect one of the few elected woman leaders in the Muslim world. This is significant because in another Muslim-majority South Asian country Bangladesh, two former elected prime ministers -- both women -- have recently been put in prison by pro-U.S. military-backed rulers. We have enough reason to believe their lives are in jeopardy too. In India also, as we may remember, Indira Gandhi was assassinated in 1984 by, many say, CIA-backed extremist separatists.
It's preaching democracy on the surface, yet practicing war and violence on the ground. We must condemn that hypocrisy.
-Partha Banerjee
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