Farewell to Pakistan's Benazir Bhutto
Former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto was assassinated today, exactly two weeks away from Pakistan's general elections.
If you do not know who Bhutto was, you will know today -- with media outlets from around the world showing horrifying scenes of a well-planned assassination. The assassin(s) used a combination of bullets and explosions to inflict the fatal blows. It occurred shortly after Bhutto left a political rally. She was hit twice, once at her spinal cord and another shot near her chest.
Her legacy
Bhutto is well known for her stance of moderation in Islam. She opposed Al Queda and more recently, the Taliban, for branding their message of hate across the region. She opposed restrictive rights on women. She was the youngest prime minister ever elected in Pakistan and the only woman to have that office.
Educated at Harvard and Oxford, she was one of America's last hope in bringing stability and democracy in the nuclear-armed Pakistan. Unfortunately, cowards did not want her to be voted in again by the people and killed her.
She is a martyr for the cause of democracy, she is a martyr for the cause of women's rights in the Islam world, and a martyr for the average Pakistani. My condolences to the people of Pakistan who are hurting right now and to her friends and family, who have yet suffered another tragic loss (Bhutto's father, another former prime minister, was also killed before).
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