Just in case y’all didn’t believe me in my earlier post on the “Bhutto Bandwagon,” here’s her niece in the LA Times, warning of the same phenomenon. A quick sample from Paragraph Two:
Perhaps the most bizarre part of this circus has been the hijacking of the democratic cause by my aunt, the twice-disgraced former prime minister, Benazir Bhutto. While she was hashing out a deal to share power with Gen. Pervez Musharraf last month, she repeatedly insisted that without her, democracy in Pakistan would be a lost cause.
And then it gets into the seamy details. Of course, CNN will, as usual, laud her as South Asia’s Savior… but remember, CNN doesn’t know its ass from a hole in the ground. (The gal who cut a deal with Musharraf is now cited as an “opposition leader.” Yeah, right. “Opposition leaders” don’t float around as part of an international jet-set funded by most of a billion dollars stolen from the state they used to run, into the ground, that is.)
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Zathras
/ November 15, 2007What you say may be true, but it’s never a good idea to give much, if any, credence to someone’s comments on a relative, whether they’re saying good things or bad. There’s inevitably too much hidden history between the them for any remarks to be given serious weight
happycrow
/ November 15, 2007On the contrary, Zathras: in this case, that’s precisely the point. NONE of the bad blood is a secret, and Bhutto is still suspected in having had a hand in her brother’s assassination. Neither is her outright corruption an unknown factor…
Mike
/ November 15, 2007Too true. Bhutto is a corrupt character who is equally bad as Musharrif (yeah, my spelling sucks). But because of a variety of factors, she gets a pass (the press is plain stupid and won’t research, she is a woman who was in power in a Muslim country, she isn’t in the military, and she was jet setting with all the other jet setters during her exile so she has nice connections). That’s bs. They are both screwups, so call them both screwups. The only real difference is in what areas they screwed up in. Just call it like it is, you don’t need to blow smoke on it or try and pound sunshine up my fourth point of contact. These are the same guys who if she does get back in power, and then runs the country into the ground will be reporting “The US backed ally is under tremendous pressure for “fill in blank, I would bet corruption”, this brings up serious questions of the US role in her getting power, and how her ouster will affect US regional power and roles.” Never mind that these guys were the flipping bandwagon to start.
I miss the US Civil War reporting days where you could outright call someone a bastard and not worry about offending someone (as that was usually the point).
happycrow
/ November 15, 2007Not to mention, this is the chick who recognized the Taliban in the first place… one way or another, the niece has a point: solid anti-terror ally this chick ain’t.