Ongoing difficulties in Iraq. A Taliban offensive in Afghanistan. And now the assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto in Pakistan. For the West, 2007 has been a year of failure and missteps. The following sentence is the most bitter compliment imaginable: The Thursday assassination (more...) of Benazir Bhutto is a huge, shocking and possibly even historic triumph for the enemies of democracy. Even worse, the attack was the gruesome culmination of what has been a successful year for them. The future of democracy in Pakistan is unclear following the Thursday assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto. It is also not reaching too far to say that the shots that fatally wounded Bhutto in Rawalpindi Thursday also killed off any hope that the Islamic world could find peace of its own accord in the foreseeable future. The West, too, is more troubled than it has been for a long time. The dismay in the corridors of government is genuine. US President George W. Bush's statement, which lasted little more than a minute, was eloquent testimony to his speechlessness. This world power has rarely looked so powerless -- and Bush has rarely looked so helpless. Three Lessons to Be Learned Now, as always when something goes wrong in the world, America is falling back on the rhetoric of violence. Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama has been saying for some time that Pakistan is the war we must win. The "war on terror" metaphor has long been one of Bush's favorites.
Ongoing difficulties in Iraq. A Taliban offensive in Afghanistan. And now the assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto in Pakistan. For the West, 2007 has been a year of failure and missteps.
The following sentence is the most bitter compliment imaginable: The Thursday assassination (more...) of Benazir Bhutto is a huge, shocking and possibly even historic triumph for the enemies of democracy. Even worse, the attack was the gruesome culmination of what has been a successful year for them.
The future of democracy in Pakistan is unclear following the Thursday assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto. It is also not reaching too far to say that the shots that fatally wounded Bhutto in Rawalpindi Thursday also killed off any hope that the Islamic world could find peace of its own accord in the foreseeable future.
The West, too, is more troubled than it has been for a long time. The dismay in the corridors of government is genuine. US President George W. Bush's statement, which lasted little more than a minute, was eloquent testimony to his speechlessness. This world power has rarely looked so powerless -- and Bush has rarely looked so helpless.
Three Lessons to Be Learned
Now, as always when something goes wrong in the world, America is falling back on the rhetoric of violence. Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama has been saying for some time that Pakistan is the war we must win. The "war on terror" metaphor has long been one of Bush's favorites.
B.S. It was another year of failure for the incompetent western leaders who run the show. Too bad for us and the rest of the world. Hey, Grandma Moses started late!
Paul Krugman - Op-Ed Columnist - New York Times Blog
To all the presidential campaigns trying to claim that the atrocity in Pakistan somehow proves that they have the right candidate -- please stop. This isn't about you; in fact, as far as I can tell, it isn't about America. It's about the fact that Pakistan is a very messed-up place. This has very bad consequences for us, but it's hard to see what, if anything, it says about US policy.
To all the presidential campaigns trying to claim that the atrocity in Pakistan somehow proves that they have the right candidate -- please stop.
This isn't about you; in fact, as far as I can tell, it isn't about America. It's about the fact that Pakistan is a very messed-up place. This has very bad consequences for us, but it's hard to see what, if anything, it says about US policy.
