Benazir Bhutto: A Complicated Legacy

The type of press that Benazir Bhutto will probably get over the next few days will probably tout her as a model of moderation and liberalism in the Muslim world. Certainly being a women and being relatively young when she came to power means that some of this is not without merit. Also, she appears to have stood up to bin Laden before any Westerners knew who he was.

There was another Benazir Bhutto though, one that appeared to be massively corrupt. In addition, it's no secret that her family owed its prominence to the continuation of feudalism in Pakistan. She may not have been a religious fanatic, she may not have been a military dictator yet she was surely not without her faults. If the West was pinning a great deal on Bhutto's chances at being elected, even without the tragic events of this day, there surely would have been problems. The challenges facing Pakistan were never solvable by any one person, be it Musharraf or Bhutto.

9/11/07

There's a great deal that can strike one about this day. That bin Laden is still taunting the West through his video releases is perhaps the most significant detail. So many people were convinced that he'd have been captured or killed by the end of 2001. Now instead he's metastasized as sort of extremist folk hero to those that buy into his world view. He can't accomplish much directly, but he's now a symbol, an idea. He cannot set up a large-scale terror-training regime, but he doesn't have to.

Osama bin Laden Emboldened

I think that's certainly one of the interpretations that you can make of his speech in light of Barnett R. Rubin's analysis:

"Bin Laden is no longer just seeking to lead Muslims in a jihad against "Crusaders and Zionists"; he is proclaiming to the whole world that the genuine revolutionary alternative to imperialism, capitalism, global warming, genocide, moral decay, confused sex roles, the decline of the family, commercialism, and whatever else ails us is Islam."

Maybe this explains why he's been silent for the past three years - it's all been a rebranding exercise. This is the new al Qaeda brand image. Along the way he's screwed over anyone critical of any of these aspects of our society. (An aside: Since these issues spread over the conventional liberal-conservative spectrum I don't know that anyone should be gleeful about this.) I wonder if this is an overreaching by a desperate man who's been cut off from his organization or the confident proposal of a man sensing the ascendancy of his philosophy and tactics among Sunni Muslims.

Complete Ignorance of the Middle East

Once again we have a right-winger demonstrating just that quality. Andrew Sullivan linked to Michael Ledeen's suggestion that Iran is harboring bin Laden.

Once again people, why is there a civil war in Iraq?

A: Sunnis and Shi'as are engulfed in sectarian violence - there are centuries-old grievances between the two sects.

Okay, so what sect does the Iranian government belong to?

A: They are Shi'a.

And bin Laden?

A: He's a Sunni.

So why, when both al Qaeda and the Iranian government consider each other heretics, does anyone think they would work together? Let's look at Ledeen's own logic:

"it certainly fits; the Iranians love "disappeared" leaders. Their messianic leader is the 'vanished Imam;' they "disappeared" bin Laden after he was routed from Afghanistan"

Oh, so I guess that the Iranians are also working with Jimmy Hoffa and Amelia Earhart. Ideology doesn't matter, theology doesn't matter, Ledeen's figured it out, the Iranians just love anyone who has "disappeared" by some means. Who listens to this guy? Moreover, who does not understand how crucially, crucially important the Sunni-Shi'a divide is to understanding the Middle East after the past four years?

What if Pakistan was Iran?

It seems as though Pakistan is getting a fairly free ride on the issue of capturing Al Qaeda (remember those guys, with the airplanes and the buildings and stuff). What I wonder is, what if Bin Laden made Iran his home at least part of the time? (Something he is almost certainly doing with Pakistan.)

This would undoubtedly be used in the current attempts at building war fever. So to recap, Pakistan has nuclear weapons, and is probably the home of Bin Laden's tree fort or whatever he lives in. Iran is years away from a bomb and none of the terror groups they support can hold a candle to Al Qaeda. (Remember kids, Iran does NOT support Al Qaeda, it's a Sunni-Shi'a thing.)