Pakistan's Orphaned Daughter
UPDATE: Scroll down and read the part under the heading Muslim Pressure. This is what I mean when I say we are afraid to stare the enemy squarely in the face. Political correctness be damned! Now take out your wallet and buy a subscription to MacLean's.
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Benazir Bhutto, 1953 - 2007
The orphaned daughter of democratic Pakistan will not be its mother. Moments before she was assassinated, Bhutto was speaking with great emotion to a large crowd about the "need to fight terrorism" and the "need to fight al Qaeda".
I don't consider Bhutto's legacy to be exceptionally notable, but I do consider the cause for which she fought to be the singular mission of our times. Ridding the world of dictatorships and ideological zealotry is a cause we must all engage. There is no hiding from it, even if it is a dream that will never be fully realized. To turn away is to allow it to grow.
When I heard the news of Bhutto's assassination, feelings welled up inside me that I have only felt once or twice before in my 58 years on this planet. And that was during the tumultuous 1960s and the assassinations of three good men in the United States. Readers of my vintage may remember this:
This spring, my first grandchild will be born. What sort of world will she inherit? Will this fight be won? What will it cost? Most importantly, will wimpish Canadians wake up in time to make the world safer for her? The Civil Rights movement in the United States brought about great changes in American society and was led by great men and women. Will such leaders arise among the Islamic world? Will the Western world slough off political correctness in time to allow us to look the enemy squarely in the face and not back down?
=========================================
Benazir Bhutto, 1953 - 2007
The orphaned daughter of democratic Pakistan will not be its mother. Moments before she was assassinated, Bhutto was speaking with great emotion to a large crowd about the "need to fight terrorism" and the "need to fight al Qaeda".
I don't consider Bhutto's legacy to be exceptionally notable, but I do consider the cause for which she fought to be the singular mission of our times. Ridding the world of dictatorships and ideological zealotry is a cause we must all engage. There is no hiding from it, even if it is a dream that will never be fully realized. To turn away is to allow it to grow.
When I heard the news of Bhutto's assassination, feelings welled up inside me that I have only felt once or twice before in my 58 years on this planet. And that was during the tumultuous 1960s and the assassinations of three good men in the United States. Readers of my vintage may remember this:
"You can kill a man, but you can't kill an idea."Let's hope Medgar Evers was right.
This spring, my first grandchild will be born. What sort of world will she inherit? Will this fight be won? What will it cost? Most importantly, will wimpish Canadians wake up in time to make the world safer for her? The Civil Rights movement in the United States brought about great changes in American society and was led by great men and women. Will such leaders arise among the Islamic world? Will the Western world slough off political correctness in time to allow us to look the enemy squarely in the face and not back down?
posted by Louise at 3:52 pm
2 Comments:
I have been waiting for you to weigh on this. This must have a strong effect on you and your family.
Hi, Huff. I can't say that Pakistan has a particular pull on my conscience. If there is one country where this struggle is going on that does have such a pull, it is Iraq. That is where I have family connections.
I'm a hopeful person, by nature. I do think we are living in times that are better than they were when I was your age. The Cold War, when two super powers were carving up the world between them, each supporting "their" thugs, and each with enough nuclear arms to destroy the world several times over, was a heck of a lot scarrier.
However, if we don't stand up to the current trend of Islamofascism, I think we may be headed to times that could be a lot worse than they are now.
One of the things that gives me hope is the fact that there are now more democracies in the world that there ever were before. The collapse of the Soviet Union hastened that development but many of the new democracies are still very fragile.
I was just reading this article about Bhutto's 19 year old son being pegged as her successor. That, if you ask me, is a dumb idea. Nineteen year olds cannot lead a democracy movement. He will be a puppet for someone. He won't be his own man. Maybe when he's 10 or 20 years older, but not at 19. Now is the time for someone new to emerge. There have been many members of the Pakistani judiciary speaking out in the last several months. Perhaps someone from the legal profession will come to the fore. Or perhaps no one will. Unfortunately, we don't always get the leaders we need, when we need them.
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