I woke up this morning hardly believing what I heard on the radio... Benazir Bhutto assassinated just two weeks before primary elections in Pakistan were to begin.  Some things I'm thinking/feeling:

1.) Obviously, Pervez Musharaf will deny allegations that he had anything to do with her assasination.  Things that would lead the world to believe otherwise would be the fact that after returning from her exile, he reluctantly granted her amnesty, he is her antithesis in the general elections (they are not up against each other; he was "elected" president and she is up for her 3rd term as prime minister, but think of it more as a republican president with democratic congress, plus lots of bombs, laundering, scandal rumors, and an authoritarian government trying to present itself as a democracy...), and shortly before she was to speak in front of her largest rally in November, she was put under house arrest without citation and without any sort of trial or charges.

2.) I admire many things about this woman.  Well educated (degrees from both Harvard and Oxford), she had made a way for herself in a society that is predominantly Muslim, male, and very against her political platform, which she presented as the 5 e's : employment, education, energy, environment, and equality.

3.) I even think Musharaf might be innocent in this... Pakistan has sheltered a large number of terrorists in recent years, all of which were also against a progressive woman prime minister.  Hamas, Al-Qaeda, Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah, and whoever else there is could be to blame.

4.) Let's not forget she was a wife and mother of three.  Her father was hung without trial and with false allegations when he was prime minister in the 70's, one brother was assassinated in '85 and the other in '96, which is said to be the reason she left her post as prime minister and went into a self-imposed exile.  Her husband was also charged and imprisoned, without trial, for 8 years by Interpol on charges of "money laundering."  Through all of that, she returned to Pakistan to try and serve another term.  Bravery, stupidity, call it what you want, but Bhutto did believe enough in the idea of democracy to try and institute it in a red-taped Pakistani government.  We can delve into alternative history all we want and say that she was to be the leader that would pull Pakistanis into a free and equal society, where young girls are protected and equally educated, and peace is waged along the Afghan/Chinese borders, but unfortunately we'll never know.