My friend Charles Strohmer, a visiting fellow of the US Center for Public Justice, and writing a book on U.S - Middle East relations, has just written on the death of Benazir Bhutto.
The Murder of Benazir Bhutto: What Pakistan, If Not the World, Lost
He echoes my own feelings, but with some substance here:
I did not know Mrs. Bhutto, but having heard her speak I feel a sense of loss from her death, even from a distance. You should, too. Here’s why. She was safe enough away from Pakistan. So why return to what is often called the most dangerous nation on the planet? She was returning, she said at CFR, because Pakistan had changed dramatically since the last time she left office (1996). “Military dictatorship has fueled the forces of extremism and has put into place a government that is unaccountable, unrepresentative, undemocratic, and disconnected from the ordinary people of the country and their aspirations. Military dictatorship is born from the power of the gun, and so it undermines the concept of the rule of law and gives birth to a culture of might, a culture of weapons, violence, and intolerance. This suppression of democracy in my homeland has had profound institutional consequences.” She was willing to return to her homeland and risk death in order to stand again for election and to seek to democratize the institutional structures. ....
He concludes:
We could discern in Mrs. Bhutto’s wisdom the notion of an inter-religious and inter-cultural dialogue that not only underscores the common humanity of us all, but seeks to open us all to its possibilities. May we not long be awaiting that “somebody else” to come along.
Strohmer brings some wisdom to the world of Foreign Policy where it sadly seems so lacking at times in our politicians and their staff.
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