Learning From The Bhutto Assassination Reactions

Learning From The Bhutto Assassination Reactions

By: Rachel Marsden

The recent assassination of Pakistani opposition leader and former Prime Minister, Benazir Bhutto, sparked some rather telling reactions by various politicians:

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf: Up until now, Musharraf had been seen by some as a genuine US ally in the war on terrorism, despite having cut deals with terrorists to keep them out of his hair and in the northern part of his country where they could make bombing runs into Afghanistan. However, when these terrorists came into town this past summer to grab some hostages and make trouble for Musharraf in the Red Mosque standoff because they wanted Sharia law in Islamabad, Musharraf’s policy of negotiating with them was proven to be a joke.

Now, when Islamic terrorists kill Bhutto -- radical Islam’s number one enemy, who just happened to be Musharraf’s own number one opponent in the upcoming Jan 8^th elections – his government released a statement saying that she died from hitting her head on her car’s sunroof. How about hitting her head on a bullet? And I suppose that the suicide bomber in the crowd just randomly blew himself up at the exact moment she succumbed to her “sunroof injuries” because he just couldn’t contain his excitement?

The only redeeming thing about Musharraf is that he isn’t actually in full jihad mode while presiding over a nuclear arsenal. The alternative is far worse. Iran’s Ahmadinejad likely soils his man-jammies dreaming about it at night, while visions of spinning uranium centrifuges dance in his head.

Grade: F

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad: Speaking of nutbars, Ahmadinejad took a break from making “nuclear power”, blogging, and dreaming of “wiping Israel off the map”, and said of Bhutto’s murder: “Overt and covert hands have targeted the independence, integrity, and dignity of the great and important country of Pakistan”. Whatever this means, I’m sure if anyone cared to probe deeper, they’ll find that he thinks the Jews did it.

Grade: F. Nice try.

Russian President Vladimir Putin: Time Magazine Man of The Year Putin called Bhutto’s death “a barbaric act of terrorism…This was a challenge issued by the forces of terrorism not only to Pakistan, but the entire international community.” You can bet that if this happened in Russia at the hands of Chechen Muslim terrorists, they’d be dead by now. Putin may be harsh on political opponents, but he’s a bit more slick. After all, this is a man who wears a full suit to the gun range. You know you’re dealing with a special brand of lunacy when a former KGB agent like Putin, who had his own political opponents arrested and jailed during the last set of elections, looks at Islamists and says, “Wow man, that’s wacked!”

Grade: B

GOP Presidential Candidate Rudy Giuliani: Giuliani gets accused of playing the “9/11 card”, usually by people who think there’s something more important going on than the war on terrorism. They have yet to convincingly articulate what that might be, and events like Bhutto’s murder do little to help their cause. Giuliani said: “Her death is a reminder that terrorism anywhere—whether in New York, London, Tel-Aviv or Rawalpindi—is an enemy of freedom. We must redouble our efforts to win the Terrorists’ War on Us.”

Grade: A. He can do this stuff in his sleep.

GOP Presidential Candidate Mike Huckabee: The “values voters” favourite who gets a solid A grade from Jesus also gets an F in foreign affairs. His reaction out of the gate was to offer his “apologies” for the assassination. He later said that he meant to offer his “sympathies”. There’s a slight difference – one appears to imply the involvement of the country he’s seeking to represent in the death of a foreign leader. Huck needs to stick to making his fans laugh in the fly-over states.

Grade: F

Democratic Presidential Candidate Hillary Clinton: Clinton referred to “anti-democratic forces”, but couldn’t bring herself to mention terrorists or Islamists’ involvement in the assassination. She continued: “I have known Benazir Bhutto for a dozen years and I knew her as a leader. I knew her as someone was willing to take risk to pursue democracy on behalf of the people of Pakistan.” In other words, Clinton just described a real “feminist”. Or at least the kind that I can stomach a lot easier than the Hillary Clinton kind. I bet Bhutto had better things to do than burn bras.

Grade: C-