Re: [nukkad] benazir - the other side

[Maloy <>]

> Bhutto is on the verge of becoming a 'martyr of democracy'.? 

Well hasn't Princess Diana become the 'Queen of Hearts'? There is a lot of 
emotion when a popular leader dies, and due to quirks of the popular memory and 
the commercial media, things don't remain the same. Remember the 'sympathy 
wave' which returned the Congress to power after Rajiv Gandhi was blown up? 
Already there is talk of a Bollywood film on Benazir and Shabana Azmi has put 
up her hand!

> Secondly, under Bhutto, the Taliban formed and, helped by Pakistan's
 intelligence service, swept across Afghanistan and later hosted Osama bin
 Laden.? It is a bit of an irony that she may have been killed by the
 very people she helped foster if at all she was murdered. 

Well the irony is that the Taliban and the Pakistani ISI was raised by the US 
and it later turned on them as Al Qaeda/ Osama and caused 9/11. Would it have 
been any different had there been any other leader in power at the same time? 
For all the talk of democracy in Washington, the US has provided over $21 
billion in economic and military aid to Pakistan, out of which over $17 billion 
was during the military-ISI rule. 

> Then why is it that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh calls her a friend of
 India and that Indians mount candlelight vigils in the Gateway of
 India for her? 

It is because times have changed from the days when Pakistan was the
sole receiver of US economic and military aid and arms sales in the
region. India is now a major ally of the US and the US-India nuclear deal is in 
the pipeline. Also note that Benazir-2007 was US-sponsored for imposition of 
democracy in Pakistan through the proposed deal with Musharraf. 


> "We in Europe are going to unite in a Common Market, why don't Pakistan
 and India forget their differences and form some kind of confederation
 with other South Asian countries, instead of killing each other?" I
 asked. ...I was flabbergasted: 

It is a bit rich coming from the French, when France is one of the leaders in 
selling military weapons and missiles to India and Pakistan.
Politics is a function of time, strategy and opportunities. 

> History will tell.

History is written by the victors, not by the victims. The US has copyrighted 
democracy and reserves the right to Guantanamo or Abu Ghraib. Maimed children 
still fly kites in Afghanistan while the Americans learn of that country 
through the The Kite Runner. Waziristan is run by the Taliban and Musharraf 
imposes Emergency and is still the key US ally in the 'war on terror'.

~Maloy








      
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