Benazir Bhutto Died for Democracy

It is with great sadness that our organization, the Council of Women World Leaders lost a member yesterday.

In a world of tailored political messages and issue flip-flopping, Bhutto stood out as courageous.

While she was in office in 1994, Bhutto conducted a filmed interview with the Council's secretary general Laura Liswood, and said that the most basic skill as a leader is "The art of compromise and flexibility. One must be flexible to survive in politics, not rigid, not dogmatic. Yet one must not abandon one's principles. So I would say that flexibility within a framework of one's beliefs and values."

Whereas some leaders send our young men and women to fight while they do aerial and virtual assessments, Benazir Bhutto put herself in peril on the ground to speak out against violence and terrorism. And all this while some pollsters and pundits still ask the question "are women strong enough to lead on security issues?"

Yes, they are.

Read more reactions from HuffPost bloggers on Benazir Bhutto's assassination

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Comments

[derik]

08:55 AM on 12/31/2007

It does seem odd to "preach" democracy and then "appoint" or "will" a nineteen year to be "king". That does not mean she was not democratic. But, this does seem to be somewhat like a monarchy. Beyond that, I shudder to think what my mind was at nineteen.

[Lisette]

04:47 AM on 12/31/2007

Here is my take on Benezir. She had her priorities wrong. She had children and now they lost their Mother. That should have been her primary thought. This Prime Minister thing was too dangerous. And, now she is gone and for what?

[poopdeck]

02:29 PM on 12/29/2007

How can anyone know what BB died for given her previous records as prime minister of Pakistan? These speculations remind me of the famous scene in Hamlet where the Danish prince goads the courtier to see all sorts of different shapes of a cloud in the sky.

[Boobaloo]

02:19 PM on 12/29/2007

Republicanbrain: America had nothing to gain by Bhuttos death? What sandbox have you had your head buried? Bush did not support Bhutto, he supported Musharraf. America does not and will never allow a democracy to take hold in any Muslim nation b/c corrupt dictators will let the ZioNeoCons do what they want however a democratic Muslim nation would stand in the way of American domination, imperialism and terrorism.

ebbtide: Your assessment that Bhutto returned for power is much more accurate then the propaganda we're fed about her and she didnt have the support base in Pakistan regardless of the pictures our absurd, incompetent media shows us.

Terrorist or Saint ... these seem to be the only options available for Muslims. The current climate of racism, hysteria and fear keeps breeding this extreme view of 1.5 billion people. She was a fallible human being with flaws, some of them fatal however she did put her life at risk b/c she believed in her own vision of herself as President again in a democratic Pakistan.

[Lemeritus]

12:04 PM on 12/29/2007

Interesting that a small piece praising Bhutto's courage should engender so much blame and denial. Whatever promises of safety she may have been given, she put her life on the line -- not by being a politician in an environment where an occasional dissident may turn assassin but in a land of assassins and madness. Surely none of our leaders exhibit signs that they would behave as bravely. Whatever her motives, whatever her flaws, this rare valor deserves our admiration.

(Note to RepublicanBrain: you doth protest too much; no one suggested the US plotted her assassination, just that it may have failed to protect her.)

[Tellmethetruth]

03:39 AM on 12/29/2007

She seemed like a brave and courgeous woman to me, who made it clear she was willing to risk her life for Democracy. The fact the American government's interest in her was less than noble, doesn't change the fact that she was a role model for women in the Islamic world, and even in the US.

[May2002]

09:48 PM on 12/28/2007

After Ms. Bhutto's sudden death, she has been praised almost like a saint or a hero.

Surely, it may not be appropriate to criticize a dead person during these hours of mourning.

Still I cannot help but wonder is Ms. Bhutto really that great as praising her has suddenly become in vogue? I remember I saw her few times being interviewed on TV, she appeared to be a politician who knew what she should say, but I detected certain phoniness in her. We all know words from a politician can be beautiful, but it may mean nothing. I wonder her trip home was really for the sake of democracy or for the sake of grabbing the power? She appeared to have an big ego and love power.

Many people are so eager to praise her highly, but I doubt these people really know her enough or know her country's history enough to be qualified to make such judgment.

Western establishment may want to praise her for her pro-west stand, but she really should be judged by what she had really accomplished and by her own people.

[ebbtide]

06:00 PM on 12/28/2007

Actually, from what I have been reading, she died because she advocated American military bases to be in Pakistan. She, obviously, was duped by Condi Rice into returning into a cauldron of disent and did not have the support of the people, even though the pics show her as being adored by thousands and thousands.

She, is being seen as a schill of Bush and Rice. And her background is not exactly pure, either.

I think Bhutto saw her "comeback" as a means to power by bowing to Bush and Rice and to a certain extent Cheney. I do not believe the front of fighting for a "democracy": at all. She wanted to be in power once more, and although it may have been for the love of her country, her exile and past do not show this love for her country as a Joan of Arc, returning. I fail to adore her. The truth is she was a willing dupe of Condi and Bush, who should have known better, and so should she.

She met a sorry fate and no way do I believe she bumped her head and got a fracture and that is what killed her.
She was assissinated by someone who wanted her out of the way.

[hopeless277]

05:16 PM on 12/28/2007

Two questions:
1. Who encouraged her to return to Pakistan?
2. Who guaranteed her safty in Pakistan?