Unlike every candidate for president in the Democratic party including immediate family and second cousins I did not know Benazir Bhutto.  When something like this happens unfortunately it takes most of us time to sort through the pieces and find something positive to consider. It certainly takes a better person than I am to identify some sanity out of the insanity given a terrible event like the murder of Ms. Bhutto. The question I have is why would she return to her country when she was run out on a rail on charges of corruption? Why go home when people there murdered  members of her own family? Why would Ms. Bhutto return to Pakistan believing her life was in such danger that she openly talked about the possibility of being killed? The day she made her triumphal entry a group of people tried to blow her to smithereens yet she stayed. The political leader is a military dictator barely hanging on by the threads of his bullet proof vest. Musharraf needs to change his name to the cat given he has survived several assassination attempts on his life. Then we have Bin Laden a man known wide and far for his leadership skills as a mass killer living in a part of Pakistan which is one of the most remote areas in the uncivilized world. 

In addition to Bin Laden the World's Public Enemy Number One celebrating his victories while he practices his rock climbing skills in order to make a hasty retreat when our army finds the address to his cave, the army of Pakistan, their police, key leadership positions in Pakistan are all laced with card carrying Taliban and Al-Qaeda. Surely Ms Bhutto knew what she was up against. There was no doubt that she understood this was a winner take all political system and we are not talking about Iowa's caucus delegates. Ms. Bhutto not only understood the risk but saw it as a win win situation. If she survived  the more than probable multiple attacks on her life she would have been able to force the President Dictator to share power thus making a real step forward for democracy and honest to goodness freedom for those who could only talk about freedom in the shadows. In reality no one should be happy with Musharraf but he is friendly to the U. S. After all the bribes I mean aid the U.S. Tax Payers provide helps him to pay off I mean provide assistance to his people. Having Bhutto join the team would have been incredibly helpful toward building a real democracy. It is strange we have had no accountability from Musharraf regarding the billions the U.S. gives him each year and Bhutto is held guilty because she was only charged. The smallest movement to stabilize Pakistan would be God sent given that Musharraf is the only one standing between the crazies I have pointed out and the 50 or so nukes Pakistan posses. 

Bhutto saw a win win situation. She did not win with her initial effort to be accepted back into the country as a long lost beloved sister. She again had to have considered her death and considered what would happen to the people she would be leaving behind. Being murdered could not be a win situation for anyone but given the nature of the fact that murder is part of their political process she must have had a plan. Ms. Bhutto must have thought something positive would have to happen if she was taken from her people.  Even more important Benazir Bhutto would not have just thrown her life away. She would have known others as before would be at risk if there was an assassination. So what was she thinking? Ms. Bhutto's death would have and did put the plight of the people of Pakistan on the front page of every news paper not to mention every T.V. and radio news program in the civilized world. She by her unfortunate death may very well have accomplished what Bush I and Clinton and Bush II was not able to do and that is draw attention to the reality of the serious nature of the terrorist problem. People all over the world who would not have given  terrorism a second thought especially a good deal of the liberal crowd who thinks the whole terrorist thing is and was just a big misunderstanding could no longer look the other way. Again I think Bhutto knew this and if she died at the hands of these deranged bad guys a part of the world that was determined to set out the war on terrorism would be faced with a dilemma. People could continue to complained that Bush lied about weapons of mass destruction forgetting that everyone from the Secretary General of the United Nations to my brother's two dogs Nancy and Rick believed in WMDs. These people could hide  their eyes to the evil of the Taliban, Al-Qaeda, Bin Laden and a football stadium full of nukes but to see a woman that most anyone would be proud to be compared to gun down along with numerous innocent bystanders as if we were all watching the last 7 minutes of Sam Peckinpaugh's move ''The Wild Bunch'' is to much for people on either side of the fence.

I remember when I was about 14 or 15 years old I watched and listened to one of my heros Martin L. King tell us in a speech that He did not think He would enter the promised land with those who he worked with and served. Then He said that He was not afraid to die. I look back at his life and the times and again I ask the question why would He keep going, just keep moving forward knowing that there were savages waiting for a chance to murder Him. A man who wanted only to be treated as our constitution demanded under god which is fair and equal treatment for all. Did King as a result of his horrible murder accomplish what Johnson's Civil Rights Bill and so many others could not. The man who killed King killed the man but did nothing to stop  what King represented. The man who killed Bhutto only killed the woman who has caused an awakening of people all over the world to the absolute danger and drama of good and evil that is still being played out. How sad that men, women, politicians, religious leaders, school teachers, writers, grocery clerks, doctors, poets, mothers, fathers and their children have to give their lives to convince people to believe in the boogie man and more important to act on that belief.