[Wall Street Journal] Editorial - "In Pakistan there are two fault lines. One is dictatorship versus democracy. And one is moderation versus extremism." Thus did Benazir Bhutto describe the politics of her country during an August visit to the Wall Street Journal's offices in New York. She was assassinated for standing courageously on the right side of both lines. The attack had every hallmark of an al-Qaeda or Taliban operation. With the jihadists losing in Iraq and having a hard time hitting the West, their strategy seems to be to make vulnerable Pakistan their principal target, and its nuclear arsenal their principal prize. Bhutto's is the highest profile scalp the jihadists can claim since their assassination of Egypt's Anwar Sadat in 1981. She also uniquely combined broad public support with an anti-Islamist, pro-Western outlook and all the symbolism that came with being the most prominent female leader in the Muslim world.
2007-12-28 01:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive