Benazir Bhutto discussion

I always condemn assassinations and unjust imprisonments. It is a subject that I and humanity in general are all too familiar with.

When I was young three political figures of the USA were assassinated in rapid succession. President Kennedy, Martin Luther King, and presidential candidate Robert Kennedy were assassinated in a time of tremendous political turmoil in the USA. President Gerald Ford, rest his soul, also narrowly avoided assassination.

What if during this time of turmoil, when many mentally unstable people had guns, and there were rumors of organized crime, racist and other plots, a country such as Pakistan wrote how sad they were because "Robert Kennedy was their candidate" or "they had been in discussions with President so and so to power share with presidential candidate such and such."

Today I read the flagrant characterization of her being the USA and other country's favorite in Pakistan's elections and own political affairs in the same breath as mourning former president Bhutto's assassination. What kind of democracy is that? When the USA openly pushes a candidate that has a known history in her own country (both good and very bad). How would the USA feel if when President Ronald Reagan was nearly assassinated if Pakistan or another country said, "Yeah, he was saved" or "Boo, darn it, wish they had gotten him" because they were openly election influencing in our country? The USA would be outraged, of course.

I remember when she was elected and I was gladdened that she was the first Muslim woman leader in such an office. Yet I wondered when some Western materialistic attributes of her and her family were so obviously manifested if she would really last in the office, leading a country of devout and poor people who also did not need an additional budgetary and moral burden of financial corruption.

When will the USA and other countries learn that this is no longer colonial times? That their Western values do not necessarily fly in countries that have other priorities in order to survive and thrive, both spiritually and materially? That people who already elected her once don't need a big brother nation pushing for her one way or the other? That empire building never works, especially in countries that have a different cultural, religious and economic milieu?

So while I condemn the assassination fully and completely, I would have to be a fool to be surprised, and I ain't a fool.

When will countries learn that to promote democracy you teach a people to fish instead of providing the fish that you have selected for their "own good" and pushing the fish on the people?

I've read she even claimed that the rains came at her bidding. I think the USA and other nations, terrorism concerns aside, need to focus on their own elections and their own moral compass. It is one thing to be a diplomat and wise counselor, and that role by the USA would be welcome. It is another thing to pressure and root for "a team" like this is the Superbowl and not a nation's future and soul.

I offer comfort to those who suffered a loss from her passing, but I urge people to be calm and sober about the steps going forward. There is always something of value to be learned in tragedy (I'm still waiting for people to learn from the Iraq experience) and I urge them to be more diplomatic and wise counselor and less nation engineers and peanut gallery. The USA in particular, despite being a nation of formidable individual faith, does very poorly at assessing the needs and priorities of a faith based state.