Commentator Close To Bhutto: "Military EXCELS In Situation Where Preventing Meltdown Is REQUIRED"

[kpete]

While it is doubtful that she could have easily calmed Pakistan's increasing turmoil if she had ascended to officialdom while in some power-sharing arrangement with President Musharraf, her death today makes everything much more fragile.

I met Bhutto during one of her recent trips through Washington in a session arranged by Harlan Ullman -- and I found her powerfully eloquent. She acknowledged to the group she was meeting that she was willing to risk her life to try and achieve a different course in Pakistan. I thought at the time that her chances of survival were low in the cauldron of a political scene that requires political leaders to mix with the masses.

A commentator close to Bhutto just told me that Pakistan will not disintegrate because of this incident -- as the military excels in "situations where preventing a meltdown is required."

Bhutto was part of America's hope for political stabilization there -- and that plan has been definitively sabotaged.

Benazir Bhutto is dead now -- and the implication I believe is that while Pakistan's future would always have been messy, that mess will be less managed and scripted and will now be far more uncontrolled, unstable, and dangerous.

-- Steve Clemons

Posted by steve at December 27, 2007 08:47 AM
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