Thursday, December 27, 2007
She returned to Pakistan, triangulating her way between the demands of the US and the political necessity of appearing to challenge Musharraf while negotiating a power sharing arrangement with him. She marketed herself to the US as someone willing to more ruthlessly prosecute the "war on terror" and intensify the imposition of neoliberal economic policies. She hoped to recover power for herself and her family through the dismissal of charges that would hold them accountable for their notorious corruption. Much of the global media will now describe her as courageous, but she was, quite simply, merely a fool for believing that she could successfully navigate the violent currents of Pakistani politics in such a contrived, self-serving way. Would she still be alive if she had attempted to shatter the elitism of the Pakistani political system by appealing directly to the populace as a figure of radical reform? It is, of course, an impossible question to answer, but one thing is certain, the democratization of Pakistan is vehemently opposed in equal measure by both the US and her al-Qaeda assassins.
Labels: "War on Terror", Al Qaeda, American Empire, Neoliberalism, Pakistan
