Regarding the death of Benazir Bhutto

When I was a small child there was a large poster on the wall of our back hallway. It showed a much younger Benazir wearing a blue head scarf. It was probably a campaign poster given to my parents by some visitor or other from Pakistan. It would have been the late 1980's, when she stunned the world by becoming the first democratically elected head of a Muslim nation state. As a graduate of Oxford, and the daughter of one of Pakistan's most gifted politicians she certainly had the potential to lead her country in the direction of progress and modernity. Yet through out her career she was dogged by allegations of corruption, and hindered by the mistakes of unqualified advisers. She never lived up to her potential, and has spent the last decade in a self imposed exile.

Over the last few months she has returned to the news, awakening the best hopes of Pakistan and the world. We listened as she began to speak of leading in the direction of moderation, seeking to negotiate a political coalition with Pakistan's military leaders. We watched as she returned to the land of her birth, touching the ground and shedding tears of joy, and was then nearly killed by a suicide bomber who took the lives of nearly 200 supporters. In recent months she has campaigned tirelessly leading up to the January elections. She seemed to genuinely believe that Pakistan could pick itself up out of the quagmire of terror, corruption and instability that it has lived in for so long. Crowds came out in the thousands to hear her message, and her future as Prime Minister seemed secure.

This morning (evening in Pakistan), she was shot in the neck by an assassin who then detonated a bomb that was strapped to his chest. Benazir was pronounced dead upon arrival at the hospital. All across Pakistan people are beating their breasts and wailing in mourning for what has been lost.

Benazir was no angel. She had her faults, as politicians from every country always will, and I hesitate to claim that had she lived Pakistan would be out of the woods. The problems are far deeper than one Prime Minister could ever hope to mend. Yet the world begins to run short of leaders with the ability to inspire their people, causing them to believe that tomorrow really can be better. And democratic change does not happen without leaders who can fan the dream into flame. I have to admit that Benazir Bhutto had this ability, and I believe that the world should grieve her death. Like with Ahmed Shah Masoud and Rafik Hariri, we have lost a potentially great warrior in the epic quest to restore hope to a deeply troubled part of the world.