Bhutto Was on a Mission

Just before she returned to Pakistan via Dubai this fall, I met Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto in Washington and raised with her during our exchange the issue of her personal safety. She seemed so determined to return to Pakistan, come what may, that she, at first, dismissed the idea of seeking any special protection for herself. I suggested that she acquire a new type of body armor developed in the United States. She promised to look into it.

Later, when she found out that this would require a license from the US government and that the Government of Pakistan would need to request it, she wrote back to me from her Blackberry that she had decided not to seek the government of General Pervez Musharraf's help in acquiring this body armor. "It seems too complicated" to ask the government for help, she wrote. After the first attack on her procession in Karachi I heard again from her husband about the name of the firm that produced the body armor.

I do not know if she managed to acquire it or not. But the fatal wounds that ended her life in Rawalpindi today were to her head and neck, areas that body armor do not protect. She died, standing up to wave to her followers outside Liaquat Bagh, the meeting ground where she held her final political rally. Her speech there was a defiant, populist one, reminiscent of many that her late father Zulfikar Ali Bhutto delivered at the same venue.

She was hoping to return to power in Pakistan and thus reclaim the moderate center of Pakistani politics. The United States saw her as an important element in the future political stability of the country, and as a potential political partner of President Musharraf in the "war of terror". In the end that was what made her the primary target of the Islamic militants. She was seen as the candidate of the West. And so she paid the heaviest price for her quest to restore democracy to Pakistan.

The issue before President Musharraf is whether he will allow elections to proceed so Pakistan can proceed along the path to democratization. If he does not, then Pakistan faces further turmoil and the "War on Terror" will be lost in the many wars within Pakistan that will surely erupt. Already the other major political party of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is reported to have announced its boycott of the elections. The one question that Musharraf is not likely to try to answer is whether he is the right man to lead Pakistan to democracy, having bequeathed it the rise of the Islamist militants and their horrific terrorism that is threatening to tear the country apart.


Shuja Nawaz, is the author of "Crossed Swords: Pakistan, its army, and the wars within" (forthcoming) from Oxford University Press. He regularly appears as a commentator on television, radio, and at think tanks.

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

Comments

[Tankan]

Standing up through the sunroof was inviting disaster, invoking memories of JFK.

It demonstrates that the enemy is ruthless and forever looking at way to eliminate "problematic" individuals and groups.

Already, they will be looking at ways of eliminating the successor to Benazir Bhutto.
The same shambolic security must be replaced by expert advisors for we shall see similar attacks enacted. State of the art body armor has its place but recognising its limits is important too, as any attack will anticipate that and seek a method to overcome that type of protection!

A heads up expert security system needs to be implemented immediatly!

[KarenZipdrive]

I'm sad that Bhutto was murdered, but whoever advised her to stick her head out of a sunroof in a crowd of lunatics was grossly negligent.
I wish she'd taken a page from Bush's book and never allowed herself to appear in public without first selecting an approved audience.
I hope to hell Hillary realizes that the kind of imbeciles who voted for Bush also might be the kind who own guns and hate women.

[syzito]

Seeing that she was killed by a shot to the "neck" no amount of armor would have saved her.

[mamacat]

It has been said rather often that it is very difficult to protect someone from an assassin who is willing to die to get to the target. Until more is known, if it ever is, what point is there in condemning her security forces?

[Dap]

Benazir Bhutto, martyred herself, and in doing so she made an already bad situation worst. It was the act of a *Believer* not the true act of a head of State. The responsibility for her own safety was her's alone, she had a death wish and fulfiled it, being ever so carful to place the blame on her enemies, leaving the country she claimed to love in a worse state.

[outnow]

General Gul, formerly of the ISI, says that Musharaff should have provided better security arrangements. The shooter/bomber was forewarned of Bhutto's movements by cell phone. The killers were "victims of American terrorism," says Gul, an open supporter of the jihadis.

Several decades of failed American foreign policies in the Middle East have polarized the world. Just as Karl Rove divided the American people, so our policies have divided the world. This time the "mess" includes "loose cannons" with nuclear warheads.

It seems so convenient for Musharaff to delay elections by killing his opponent or rather allowing events to take their course. The chances for justice and democracy are diminished in Pakistan and the chances of security are diminished along with the death of Bhutto.

The "divide and conquer" strategy causes "blowback." We will live in its shadow all of our days. It will no longer an issue if the "Russians are sane, " but whether we can live with the natural and probably consequences of our own actions. These people are not playing for a "stalemate" as were the Russians.

[FloaterBall]

We kill Saddam in Iraq. We support the Pakistani Saddam. What's the difference?

[tinkaboutit]

This article is sleight of hand away from the real question...

Who did it and why?

#1 prime suspect: Musharraf. Duh.

The military strongman dismantles the supreme court that WAS GOING TO rule against him.

He muzzles the press that WAS GOING TO report what he was doing.

Would such a person be above scheming for the assassination for his rival who WAS GOING TO beat him in elections?

Are you THAT stupid to even doubt it?

When will Bush remove this bastard dictator, restore democracy, and catch Osama Bin Laden?

[TheScarletPimpernel]

It is hard to see who benefits more than Mushareef in all this, perhaps only Bin Laden.

The failed US policy of suport for Mushareef now is being hailed as the US only hope for stability in Pakistan by the right wing neocons, this policy is a fools errand,Ms Bhutto's lack of protection now has the ironic effect of continuing a failed miserable foreign policy by the US.

Mushie has cleverly manipulated the press and Bush to think that he is the buffer against fundamentalist takeover of Pakistan and its nukes.
Nothing could be further from the truth ....call it old fashioned what is wrong with empowering the people, the vast middle class of Pakistan....

The fruit cakes of Pakistan are the same as the dopey neocons of the US small in number but well financed $10 billion in aid is a lot of money to spread around.

[bobh]

Presumably her concerns about not getting the security she needed were communicated to the State Department? Another matter that Ms. Condi did not get around to?

[UncleDave]

I am so conflicted on so many levels,that I don't know what to think. I've read that Bhutto was corrupt,and may have the blood on her hands of family members. I've read she was a champion of secular democracy. Why did she return? Knowing full well Her life was in danger why did she expose her followers to danger? Did she have a death wish? To what end? Why would Musharaff have her killed,knowing how the country would explode? The assassin was a good shot and then blew himself up-knowing full well that had he not,he would have been torn to pieces by the crowd. Who could employ such a person? To Me,it makes No sense unless it was an act of terror.Today,I feel very uninformed and sad. And I don't enjoy feeling that way.

[Tellmethetruth]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joe-biden/a-new-approach-to-pakista_b_71733.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joe-biden/we-need-a-pakistan-policy_b_71399.html

Joe Biden's Comments on Huffington Post about Pakistan on November 6th and 8th of 2007.

[ArchAngel]

I am sorry for her death. But this was a transparent and naïve mission. It had all of the same fantasy wishing as the Iraq war.

There are literally many many thousands of persons whose livelyhoods and even their very lives depend upon the continuing existence and maintenance of the government of General Pervez Musharraf. They will readily act on their own inititive to preserve the status quo.

Any mission that does not recognize and address this fact is doomed to fail.

[droog]

Come on, it was just a matter of time until she got assassinated. She knew it.
Now she'll forever be a martyr. Nothing wrong with that.

[drolleen]

This post is very important, but it also tells a story about the snake.

Unfortunately, it looks like Musharraf is the reason Bhutto is dead. Was he not able to protect a leader that was already attacked? I doubt it. Beyond the "Dragon Skin", if he was really interested in protecting Bhutto he would have given her the protection he is getting. He was attacked at least twice and not even scratched!

No. This guy is a snake (maybe I am being unfair to snakes here). He is the reason Al Qaeda is powerful. He is the reason we have a useless religious war in the 21st century, all for the purpose of keeping in power. If you look at his route to power you will see the same Napoleonic tendencies.

So I can't believe for one moment that he is not behind this assassination himself.

Very brilliant of him: For the first time ever a sharp shooter also blows himself up - or did he?

US should support Benazir's party and insist on elections in January.