Bhutto's Death and Assassinations' Tolls

Today on the show, we talked to Melissa Harris Lacewell about the psychological impact of assassinations of leaders -- elected leaders like President John F. Kennedy or unelected ones like Martin Luther King.

Lacewell said, in part:

What political leaders like Martin, Malcom, and John F. Kennedy do is that they provide a focal point for our political hopes and dreams. If we think about Martin Luther King, for example, it's not as though the tactics and strategies that Martin King was using in the 1950s and 1960s were brand new. ... So why was Martin so important? He became a focal point, a way for us to say, here, this man, this charismatic, brilliant loving, young man represents all of what is best of us as a country, the best of us as a race, as a people. His assassination was a way of indicating that the country was unwilling to put its very best to the front, and instead was willing to cut down its future, its promise, its youth. In many ways, this is a similar kind of thing that is going on right now in Pakistan.

We also talked about how Barack Obama's presidential candidacy carries with it the specter that yet another African-American leader could be assassinated, something I asked Obama about directly in July.

Senator Obama said:

I don't spend all my time obsessing about safety issues. We take precautions and this is a risk that all presidential candidates face. Obviously it's a little more prevalent if you're an African-American candidate, but Michelle and I -- my wife and I -- talked about this before we got into this race, the sacrifices that were involved -- being away from the kids, not having as much privacy as we once had --- and our conclusion was that it was worth it, because we're in one of these moments where I truly believe we've got an opportunity to reshape the political landscape right now in a way that we haven't had maybe since Ronald Reagan did it for conservatives back in 1980.

If, as Melissa Harris Lacewell argues, that the assassination of Martin Luther King represented the country's willingness to cut down its best, what did Benazir Bhutto represent to her people?

In an op-ed in the Washington Post, author Ahmed Rashad wrote:

The assassination of Benazir Bhutto has left a huge political vacuum at the heart of this nuclear-armed state, which appears to be slipping into an abyss of violence and Islamic extremism. The question of what happens next is almost impossible to answer, especially at a moment when Bhutto herself seemed to be the only answer.

He goes on to say "Bhutto was a giant of a politician in a land of political pygmies and acolytes of the military."

The article notes Ahmed Rashid, a Pakistani journalist, is the author of "Taliban" and "Jihad: The Rise of Militant Islam in Central Asia."

Not everyone was convinced Bhutto had such stellar leadership qualities.

In an article on MSNBC.com titled "Be Careful of Pakistan's 'Ms. Liberty'," Middle East Bureau Chief Richard Engel wrote:

While the Harvard- and Oxford-educated Bhutto is the leading opposition politician in Pakistan, she is still more popular in the West than at home. Bhutto's regime is remembered for having one of the worst human rights records in Pakistan's history, and her government did not allow the media freedoms she criticizes Musharraf for crushing. Bhutto could also still face corruption cases in Britain, Spain and Switzerland.

Engel also argued, "Bhutto and Musharraf also have a common interest in keeping the courts here weak." The undermining of the Pakistani court system under the state of emergency was one of the most highly criticized aspects of General Musharraf's recent policies.

As we look at the death of Benazir Bhutto, the question that comes to mind for me is: what happens to an already politically bruised people when politics become death?

It's a question that African Americans have faced; and ones that not only Pakistanis but many people across the globe face today.

Farai Chideya

Tags: Benazir Bhutto