Gaffa's Blog

With the assassination of Benazir Bhutto on Thursday it got me thinking why did she ever want to go back to Pakistan and attempt to regain power? If it was a choice between living out her years in comfort in New York City or going back to her home country which is so politically unstable and clearly where she had many enemies which wanted her dead then why go for the insane option? Naturally it was the desire to have power and possibly help her people. She led the country twice as Prime Minister and to use a cliché – broke the mould by being the first woman to lead the country. Yet her record seems besmirched by allegations of corruption and to be kicked out twice over this is beyond careless. Nevertheless it’s hard not to admire her bravery and determination in going back there and risking her life.

However I take issue with Simon Hoggart who wrote in his column on Saturday in The Guardian criticised world leaders for calling the assassination ‘cowardly’ as he feels that although it might be evil to shoot someone and blow yourself up - is not cowardly. Perhaps for the presumably brainwashed individual who did the act it is not cowardly – but if it was organised by an organisation such as Al-Qaeda or members of the Pakistan military then such as act is cowardly because it is a blatant attempt by those wishing to prevent democracy to derail it by using violent methods. If you fight in the shadows and only send your minions against those individuals brave enough to face the world seeking a democrat mandate then it is done by those who completely lack the courage that Bhutto had.