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Today's
Stories
December 29
/ 30, 2007
Alexander Cockburn
Options
in America: Kill Yourself or Have a Baby
December 28,
2007
Farzana Versey
The
Complex Electra
Wajahat Ali
A
Pakistani Requiem
Binoy Kampmark
Death in Rawalpindi: Bhutto and Her Legacy
Ayesha Ijaz
Khan
Not Dead Yet: The Pakistan People's Party Still Survives
Anthony DiMaggio
Turkey's Bombing of Iraq
Ray McGovern
Creeping
Fascism
Jim Goodman
Biofuels, the Biggest Scam Going
Ron Jacobs
Transcending the Colonizer's History: Iran, a People Interrupted
Russell Hoffman
Mini-Nukes by Toshiba
John Murphy
Greens Gone Wild
Website of the Day
Guiliani Campaign Official: "Only Rudy Can Defeat the Muslims"
December 27,
2007
Dilip Hiro
A
Tragedy Foretold: Will Bhutto's Death be a Boost for Her Party?
Murtaza Shibli
Who Killed Bhutto?
Stephen Soldz
Fallujah,
the Information War and U.S. Propaganda
Bill Quigley
Locked
Outside the Gates
Paul Craig Roberts
The Great American Lock-Up
Omer Subhani
Killing Bhutto: What Happens Next in Pakistan?
Marjorie Cohn
The Torture Tape Cover-Up: How High Does It Go?
Allan Nairn
Cataclysm By Money Whim
Jacob G. Hornberger
Smearing Ron Paul: Shame on the NYT
Norman Solomon
Channeling Suze Orman
Patrick Irelan
Rumsfeld Spills the Ink
Ben Tripp
Pass the Razor Blades
Website of the Day
Quagmire, For What It's Worth
December 26, 2007
Charles Tripp
From
One Saddam to Fifty
Paul Armentano
No-Knock, You're Dead
Rannie Amiri
Lebanon in Search of a Government
Stanley Heller
Brzezinski and Charlie Wilson's War
John Walsh
Two Unreasonable Men
Martha Rosenberg
The Strange Career of Scott Gottlieb
Norman Madarasz
Bolivia Amends New Constitution and Faces Mutiny from Within
Website of
the Day
Cockburn at the Battle of Ideas
December 25,
2007
Patrick Cockburn
Conscience
and Empire
December 24,
2007
Andrea Peacock
A
Dark Ride on the Border
Tariq Ali
Thinking of Edward Said
Uri Avnery
Help! A Ceasefire!
Jill Jameson
Burma is Not Back to Normal: A Trip from Rangoon to Mae Sot
Steve Melendez
Russell Means Goes to Washington
Mike Whitney
The Big Fix
Chuck Munson
Not Getting It About New Orleans
John Walsh
Clueless Crusaders
Farzana Versey
Tony Blair and the Hawking of Religion
Richard Neville
Dreaming of a White House Christmas
Website of the Day
Back in the USSR
December 22 / 23, 2007
Alexander Cockburn
Mike
Huckabee's Ascending Chariot
Ralph Nader
Politics
and Profits: How the Oil Cartel Gets Its Way
Andy Worthington
Intelligence Failures, Battlefield Myths and Unaccountable Prisons
in Afghanistan
Ahmad Faruqui
The Comedian of Pakistan
Bill Moyers
Society on Steroids
Rev. William
E. Alberts
Blessed are the Peacemakers
Timothy J. Freeman
From Kant to Lennon: Can War Really be Over?
Anthony DiMaggio
Democrats Continue to Capitulate on Iraq
Fred Gardner
Molecule of the Year, Cannabiodiol
Paul Krassner
Enhanced Hazing Techniques
Seth Sandronsky
17 Years of Meanness: Repealing California's Three Strikes Law
William Loren
Katz
Christmas Eve Freedom Fighters: Recalling the Battle of Lake
Okeechobee
Michael Dickinson
In the Dungeon of the Zabita
Ron Jacobs
Why Leon Russell Still Matters
David Vest
Doyle Bramhall's "Is It News?"
Poets' Basement
Orloski, Davies and Ford
Website of the Weekend
George W. Hates Santa
December 21,
2007
John Ross
New Massacres Loom in Mexico
Jacob Hornberger
Nothing Can Morally Justify the Invasion of Iraq
Dick J. Reavis
A
Way Out of the Newspaper Abyss
Jeff Cohen
and Norman Solomon
The 2007 P.U.-litzer Prizes
Peter Morici
Business as Usual as Recession Looms
Jack McCarthy
Let Us Now Praise Judith Regan (Even If She Did Sleep with Bernie
Kerik)
Raúl Zibechi
Sex and Revolution
Steve Early
How the Presidential Candidates Made Me an Atheist
David Macaray
Union Aftermath
Patrick Bond
Zuma, the Center-Left and the Left-Left in S. Africa
Lakota Freedom Delegation
A Declaration of Independence from the USA
Website of
the Day
Solomon v. Beck: Tale of the Tape
December 20,
2007
David Rosen
Mitt
Romney's Secret Life as a Pornographer
Alan Farago
The
Huckster and the Wreckage: Jeb Bush and the Subprime Mortgage
Crisis
Laura Carlsen
Standing Up to NAFTA
Ashley Dawson
The Return of the Bread Riot
Wayne Smith
and Jennifer Schuett
Cuba Changes, US Policy Stagnates
Website of
the Day
How to Talk to a FoxNews Reporter
December 19,
2007
Saul Landau
Is
the NIE Bush's Watergate?
Paul W. Lovinger
Hillary the Hawk
Norman Solomon
The Mad Corporate World of Glenn Beck
Dave Zirin
George Mitchell's Drugs of Choice
Marjorie Cohn
Bush Still Spinning Iranian Nukes
Sen. Russell
Feingold
The Iraq War is Exhausting Our Nation
Sonja Karkar
A Christmas Reflection on Palestine
Anthony Papa
Open the Drug Gulags
Christopher Ketcham
Pave the Holy Lands with Good Intentions
Davey D
Britney's Little Sister is Pregnant: Should We Blame Hip Hop?
Website of
the Day
When Republicans Use the F-Word on TV
December 18,
2007
R. F. Blader
The
Politics of Teen Pregnancy
George Wuerthner
Gunning for Wolves in Idaho
Steven Higgs
Can the NAFTA Superhighway be Stopped?
Vijay Prashad
Encounters with Ghadar
David Macaray
The Free Rider Problem
Ralph Nader
Nine Books That Make a Difference: a Reading List for the Holidays
Eva Liddell
Privatizing War Abroad, Invading Privacy at Home
Martha Rosenberg
While the Bodies are Still Warm: Drugs, Shrinks and Shooters
Dave Lindorff
When Impeachment is Out of Print
Peter Morici
The Consequences the Trade Deficit
Website of
the Day
Ron Paul: How Fascism Will Come to America
December 17,
2007
Mike Whitney
Staring
Into the Abyss
Tom Barry
Planning
the War on Immigrants
Uri Avnery
A
Gaza Masada?
Greg Moses
Crossing the Line in Texas
Allan Nairn
Terrorism; Counter-
Terrorism: Excuses for Murder
Patrick Bond
South Africa's Fight Between Hostile Brothers
Stephen Lendman
Police State America
Charles Jonkel
Grizzly Right of Way
Laray Polk
An Inside-Out Crisis in Gaza
Stephen Fleischman
Pawns in Their Game
December 15
/ 16, 2007
Peter Linebaugh
A
People's Penny for the Magna Carta
Howard Zinn
Bomb After Bomb
Standard Schaefer
The Greening of Big Tobacco
Raymond J.
Lawrence
Let's Take Christ Out of Christmas
Alan Farago
Down on Desolation Row: the Vultures and the Growth Machine
Saul Landau
Lord Byron and the Bad Tourists
Jenna Orkin
Lying to "Reassure" the Public: Bush's EPA and the
Post-9/11 Toxic Air Cover-Up
Ahmad Samih
Khalidi
Why a Palestinian "State" is a Punitive Construct
Robert Fantina
Politics By Photo-Op
Missy Comley
Beattie
Resistance Amid the Ruins
Ramzy Baroud
Of Mormons and Muslims
James L. Secor
A Vision for China's Future
Elijah Wald
Ike Turner's Music Won't be Forgotten
Website of
the Weekend
The Alliance for the Wild Rockies Needs (and Deserves) Your Support
December 14,
2007
JoAnn Wypijewski
The
Dirty Cad: What Giuliani's Sex Life Tells Us About Him
John Ross
Iraqi
Refugees Return: One Cruel Hoax
Jacob Hornberger
Terror Suspects Belong in Federal Court
Andy Worthington
Guantánamo and the Supreme Court: What Happened?
Allan Nairn
"Shoot Them on the Spot": Rewarding War Crimes
Dave Zirin
The Mitchell Report: Absolving the Owners
Dave Lindorff
The First Cut is the Deepest
Misty MacDuffee
Toxic Grizzlies
Ben Terrall
What Happened to Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine?
Dr. Mustafa
Barghouthi
Prerequisites for Peace
Website of the Day
Sen. Kit Bond: "Waterboarding is Like Swimming"
December 13,
2007
Paul Craig
Roberts
Shrinking
the Dollar from the Inside-Out
Mike Whitney
Dershowitz for the Defense--of Waterboarding
Ron Jacobs
Blank Check DemocratsL the Great War Funding Conspiracy
Norman Solomon
The USA's Human Rights Daze
Peter Morici
The Dragon and the Toothless Dog: China Doesn't Flinch
Sandy Mayes
Blocking the Strykers: 13 Days of War Resistance at Port Olympia
Franklin Lamb
The UN in Lebanon: Whose Mission Is It Fulfilling?
Jacob Hornberger
Don't Reform the CIA, Abolish It
Nadim Rouhana
An Interloper in My Own Land
Dave Zirin
On Pigskin and Petrol
Website of the Day
Rachel's Needs (and Deserves) Your Support!
December 12, 2007
Allan
Nairn
US Intelligence is Tapping Indonesian
Phones
Alan
Farago
How Sprawl Eats Its Young
Ray
McGovern
Torture, Lies and Videotape
Winslow
T. Wheeler
The Phony Pentagon Budget Cuts
Evan
Jones
The Raid on Great Western: Why an Australian Bank Might Spell
Doom for the US Farm Belt
James
Petras
An Open Letter to Sarkozy on the Exchange of Political Prisonsers
Joel
Hirschorn
The Horserace Fiction: Clinton, Obama and the Democratic Machine
Joshua
Frank
Why Ron Paul Deserves Our Attention
Sherry
Wolf
Why the Left Should Reject Ron Paul
Dan
Bacher
Survey of a Fish Graveyard
Website
of the Day
Men Eating Bugs
December
11, 2007
Patrick
Cockburn
What's Really Happened During
the Surge?
Diana
Johnstone
The Next Kosovo War
Paul
Craig Roberts
It's Waco All Over Again: Preventive Detention and the Constitution
David
Macaray
Impasse in Hollywood
Ralph
Nader
Gail Collins Versus the Underdogs
Andy
Worthington
Guantánamo Britons to be Released: a Mixed Result
Martha
Rosenberg
No Holiday for High Risk Sex Workers
Steve
Champion /
Anthony Ross
Words for Our Brother, Tookie Williams
Kim
Nicolini
Tangled Up in Dylan
Michael
Dickinson
Say Goodbye to Purgatory: Pope Rat Gets Indulgent
Website
of the Day
A Charming (and Worthy)
Pitch
December 10, 2007
Uri
Avnery
How They Stole the Bomb From Us
Debbie
Nathan
The Perils of Journalism and Child
Porn
JoAnn
Wypijewski
Is There a Left Here Left?
If So, What Can It Do?
Steve
Kelly
Cheap Chips, Counterfeit Wilderness
Donna
J. Volatile
Welcome to the Revolution
December
8 / 9, 2007
Alexander
Cockburn
The Coup Against Bush and Cheney
Brenda
Norrell
Seize the Land, Chain the Peace Activists
Saul
Landau
The Ruins of Empire
R.
F. Blader
A Rape in Every Drink?
Ray
McGovern
Spinning Iran's Centrifuges
Allan
Nairn
Imposed Hunger in Gaza, the Army in
Indonesia
Linn
Washington, Jr
Spotlight on Death Row
Paul
Craig Roberts
When Will Bush Come Clean?
December
7, 2007
Sean
Penn
Piano Wire Puppeteers
Arthur
Versluis
Mining Water in the Desert
M.
G. Piety
Racism and the American Psyche: Some
Thoughts on Race and Intelligence
Pam
Martens
Banksters Gone Wild
Alan
Farago
Will the Free Market Kill Suburbia?
Sprawl and the Credit Crisis
Allan
Nairn
It Takes (Out) a Village
Col.
Dan Smith
Bush, Iran and the Politics of Doomsday
Alice
Slater
The Iran Opening
Robert
Weissman
The Story of Stuff
Website
of the Day
Something
About Mitt
December
5, 2007
Mike
Whitney
Why the CFR Hates Putin
Sharon
Smith
The Anti-War Enablers: Tom Hayden
and the Dead End Democrats
James
Petras
Venezuela in the Aftermath
Ron
Jacobs
The Iran Charade
Dave
Zirin
Kicking a Dead Man: the Sliming of Sean Taylor
John
V. Whitbeck
Two States or One? Time to Choose
Peter
Zinn
Covered in New Orleans
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
Impeach Pelosi Instead
Alan
Farago
The Credit Bomb Detonates in Florida
Heather
Gray
US Meddling in Australian Politics
Website
of the Day
A Donner Summit Night Before Xmas
December
4, 2007
Alexander
Cockburn
Jackboot State Stubs Its Toe in
Ann Arbor
Andy
Worthington
Guantánamo and the Supreme
Court
Paul
Craig Roberts
The Lies at the End of the American
Dream
Ray
McGovern
No-Nuke Iran
Winslow
T. Wheeler
Admiral Mullen and the Defense Budget: When White Elephants are
Too Small
Allan
Nairn
The Regime Still Stands in Burma, Where "the People Just
Want Food"
Russell
Mokhiber
The USA v. Al Arian
Nikolas
Kozloff
As Chávez Falters: Raising the Stakes for the South American
Left
John
V. Walsh
Peace Movement Paralyzed
Ghada
Ageel
Will Peace Cost Me My Home?
Stephen
Soldz
The Facts be Damned!: Psychologists' President Defends Psychologist
Involvement in Interrogations
Website
of the Day
Hands Off the People of Iran
December
3, 2007
Tariq
Ali
Venezuela After the Referendum
Bill
Quigley
New Orleans: Bulldozers for the Poor,
Tax Credits for Developers
Eric
Walberg
The Bible and Middle East History
Uri
Avnery
After Annapolis
Marjorie
Cohn
Operation Iraqi Freedom Exposed
Dave
Lindorff
Vengeance Isn't Sweet
Stephen
Fleischman
Homeless in Paradise
Martha
Rosenberg
Perp Walks for the Mink Clad on Chicago's Mag Mile
Website
of the Day
So Just Lead!
December
1 / 2, 2007
Alexander
Cockburn
Emblems of the Bush Age: Adrift
in a Sea of Booze
Jeffrey
St. Clair
The Bear Minimum: the Grizzly and
the Future of the Rocky Mountain West
Mike
Whitney
"Iraq Doesn't Exist Anymore": an Interview with Nir
Rosen
Shemon
Salam
A Visit From the FBI
Roger
Burbach
The Battle in Bolivia
Benjamin
Dangl
New Politics in Old Bolivia
Brian
M. Downing
The Quiet on the Middle Eastern Front: How Much Credit Goes to
the Surge?
Greg
Moses
Night of the Living Redneck: a Texas Horror Story
Sonja
Karkar
The "Never-Never" Peace Conference
Saul
Landau
Ethics and Evil in South Boston
Margaret
Kimberley
Black America Left Behind
John
Ross
What are the Prospects for a New Mexican Revolution?
Reza
Fiyouzat
Exit on the Left: When Che's Children Visited Iran
Judith
Scherr
Berkeley Turns Right for the Holidays
Lance
Olsen
Of Forests and Finance: Logging for the Wealthy
Christopher
Brauchli
Mr. Bush and the Despots
Robert
Fantina
Iraq as U.S. Colony
Dan
Bacher
Fish Triage on Prospect Island
Michael
Donnelly
Remembering How to be Human: John Trudell and the Music of Urgency
Website
of the Weekend
Appalachian Voices
November
30, 2007
Peter
Stone Brown
The Re-Packaging of Bob Dylan
Wajahat
Ali
The Volatile Mistress: an Interview with Javed Jabbar, Pakistan's
Former Minister of Information
Allan
Nairn
Cold-Blooded Celebrity: Thomas L. Friedman and the Bali Bombers
Alan
Farago
The Sorrows of Suburbia: Politics, Sprawl and the Housing Crash
John
Ross
The Death of Latin America's First Revolution
Corporate
Crime Reporter
America's Corporate Crime Capitals
Lucia
Alvarez
Diego Gonzalez
Argentina's Political Future
James
Rothenberg
The Iraqi Miracle
Website
of the Day
Bio-Bling?
November
29, 2007
R.
F. Blader
The Most Dangerous Kind of Bribe
Ismael
Hossein-Zadeh
Distorting Fascism to Demonize Iran
Stephen
Soldz
War on the Couch: Fear, Aggression and Empire
Sheldon
Richman
Iraq 3.0
George
Wuerthner
Forest Fires, Lies and Chainsaws
Felice
Pace
Did All Things Considered Self-Censor on Annapolis?
Col.
Dan Smith
The Meaning of Annapolis
Harvey
Wasserman
Terror Target Nukes
Nikolas
Kozloff
Primetime Hate Debate: Lou Dobbs, Immigration and Campaign '08
Paul
Krassner
Huffington Post Bloggers Go On Strike!
Dave
Lindorff
News Not Fit to Print: US Coup Planned for Venezuela?
CP
News Service
The One State Declaration
Website
of the Day
A Native View of Yellowstone Bison Slaughter
November
28, 2007
James
Petras
CIA Destabilization Memo Surfaces
on Venezuela
Jeff
Halper
Annapolis: When the Roadmap is a One
Way Street
Pam
Martens
Crashing Citigroup
Peter
Morici
Economy in Crisis: Avoiding a Recession
Mohammed
Khatib
Separate and Unequal in Palestine
Helen
Redmond
The Horror and the Hope: Health Care in America
William
S. Lind
In the Fox's Lair: Quiet Before a New Iraq Storm?
Ben
Tripp
We, the People: a Trope for All Seasons
Liaquat
Ali Khan
Pakistan: First, Restore the Constitution and Reinstate the Judges
Jeff
Berg
Holbrooke Says Bush Won't Attack Iran
Website
of the Day
The Lies of Joe Klein
November
27, 2007
Joe
DeRaymond
On the Road to the Torture School
Paul
Craig Roberts
Meet the Only Two Candidates Worse Than Bush and Cheney: Hillary
and Rudy
Marjorie
Cohn
Remembering Victor Rabinowitz
Mike
Whitney
A Dollar the Size of a Postage Stamp
Ron
Jacobs
The Myths of Military Progress
Col.
Dan Smith
The Pentagon's "People System" Still Doesn't Work
Ralph
Nader
Family Learning
Karim
Makdisi
Annapolis and the Unholy Alliance: the View from Beirut
Christopher
Ketcham
Memo to Hollywood Writers: Strike Until You Drop
Ronan
Bennett
Martin Amis Does a Coulter
Website
of the Day
Celebrating the Uncensored Media
November
26, 2007
Kathleen
and Bill Christison
Heading for Annapolis
Paul
Craig Roberts
The End of All That
David
Macaray
Enter Mediator
Sameer
Dossani
Pakistan's Wounded Dictator
Roger
Burbach
The Final Battle in Bolivia
Mark
Scaramella
Guns and Greed in the Emerald Empire
Brian
McKinlay
Howard's End
Rick
Kuhn
The Fall of a Racist Union Buster
Binoy
Kampmark
Ruddslide and Dull Alec
Monica
Benderman
What Do You Know of War?
Brenda
Norrell
Return to Alcatraz
Website
of the Day
Ghostworld by DJ Spooky
November
24 / 25, 2007
Alexander
Cockburn
The Ordeal of Catherine Wilkerson,
MD
Robert
Fisk
Darkness Falls on the Middle East
Saul
Landau
Norman Mailer will Not R.I.P.
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Justice Stephen Breyer, Cancer Bonds and the Origins of Neoliberal
Environmentalism
Rannie
Amiri
Beirut's Black Friday
Christopher
Brauchli
Iraq Embassy as Gilded Palace
Daniel
Gross
The Gap and Black Friday
Mike
Whitney
"A Generalized Meltdown of Financial Institutions"
Marjorie
Cohn
Iran and the 2008 Elections
David
Rosen
Senior Sex: the Real Sexual Life of Aging Americans
David
Michael Green
If Conservatism is the Ideology of Freedom ....
Kenneth
Rexroth
When Euripides Played the Hindu Kush: Greeks and Buddhists in
Afghanistan
Muhammad
Iqbal
Trans. Shahid Alam
Ghazal
Website
of the Day
Aerial Footage of Delta Fish Kill
November 23, 2007
Gary
Leupp
Killing the Buddha in Pakistan's Swat
Valley
Laura
Carlsen
Coming to Terms with Diversity in
Bolivia: an Interview with Alvaro Garcia, Bolivia's VP
David
Macaray
Keeping Labor Unions Out
Andy
Worthington
Former Guantánamo Detainee Seeks Asylum in Sweden
Clifton
Ross
Trashing Chavez: Keith Olberman's Toxic Rant
Seth
Sandronsky
Battling Sodexho
Dan
Bacher
Death in the Delta: Thousands of Fish Stranded by Bureau of Reclamation
William
A. Cook
The Myth of Middle East Peace
Website
of the Day
Waiting for the Guards: Stress Techniques as Torture, a Short
Film
November
22, 2007
Alan
Farago
Who Lost America's Everglades?
Greg
Moses
A Thanksgiving Basting
Dave
Lindorff
Impeachment is Back on the Table
Mike
Ely
Native Blood: the Myth pf Thanksgiving
Omar
Azfar
Gore for President of Pakistan?
November
21, 2007
Vijay
Prashad
Our Dictator, Their Democracy
Martha
Rosenberg
Undercover at a Turkey Slaughtering Plant
Manuel
Garcia, Jr.
Epiphany on the Glacier
John
Ross
The Last Days of Mexican Corn
Brian
McKenna
Cancer Terrorists Unmasked
Stephen
Soldz
Isolation Torture Routine at Guatánamo
Monica
Benderman
Needing Peace
Ben
Terrall
Slavery in the Fields: The Real Price of Sugar
Website
of the Day
Mercy for Animals
|
Weekend
Edition
December 29 / 30, 2007
Letter from Lahore
Encountering
Benazir Bhutto
By FAWZIA AFZAL-KHAN
Lahore, Pakistan.
I was a twenty-two year old graduate
student in Boston when in 1980, a year after her father, the
charismatic populist former prime minister of Pakistan, Zulfiqar
Ali Bhutto had been hung by military dictator Zia ul Haque, Ms
Bhutto arrived at Radcliffe, her former alma mater, to deliver
a speech on Women and Islam as part of the annual Kenneth Galbraith
Lecture Series. Like so many other Pakistani students who were
studying at area institutions at the time, I arrived starry-eyed
to hear her deliver her speech and to see up-close and personal
a woman who, in her year in self-imposed exile from Pakistan
since her father's execution, had been slowly building a case
for herself as the legitimate future ruler of Pakistan, a force
for democracy in our benighted nation.
I recall being disappointed
by her lectureone in which she claimed that Islam and women's
rights were not only not incompatible, but that as a woman who
had risen to political heights of leadership herself, she could
say that Islam proved no barrier for women as national and international
leaders-a stance which at the time, given the backlash against
women so visible in Khomeini's recently post-Islamic revolution
Iran, seemed highly dubious in the contemporary manifestations
of Islamism in the world. Her personal charisma, however-enhanced
by her somewhat disheveled or at least highly unfashionable appearance-shalwar
worn high above the ankles, no make-up, none of the sophisticated
sartorial gestures so much on display in the carefully coifed
appearance of women of her elite class, added to the allure of
a woman bent upon presenting herself to her largely academic
audience of expatriate Pakistani students as the one to whom,
above all others, we owed our allegiance as the rightful political
heir to her father's brand of populist socialism, the next truly
democratic leader of a post-dictatorship Pakistan. And an intellectual
to boot.
So the latter gesture rang
hollow. But since most of us were more interested in her leadership
credentials, we hung around after the formal lecture was over,
to ask her questions in the more intimate, less formal structure
of a post-lecture setting with its requisite wine and cheese,
the "Islamic" title of the talk notwithstanding! I
remember vividly the sycophants of her inner circle surrounding
her as she sat at a table, gushing all over her, acting as a
protective shield against possibly hostile outsiders. I also
remember almost as if it were yesterday, the astonishment I felt
at her own hostile response to what I thought then, and still
do today, my fair and rather innocuous question: what was her
election platform or manifesto by which one could gauge the sincerity
and depth of her commitment to a truly democratic agenda? Oh
boy. Wrong question. I thought she was about to have an epileptic
seizure by the way her eyes glazed over, then started to turn
bloodshot, and the foam began forming at the corners of her bright
red lips (the only concession to "feminine fashion"
she had made). She virtually spat out her answer, anger and
arrogance on display in every word she uttered. "Do you
know who I am?" incredulity at my naivete hissing through
her words. "Cassettes of my speeches sell like hotcakes
in every market in Pakistan," and when my expression must
have betrayed some level of incomprehension, she lashed out,"
that means the people of Pakistan love me, they know how I have
suffered for them when I was jailed following my father's execution,
just because as his daughter and the one groomed to be a future
leader of Pakistan, the army just could not take the chance of
my being free to assume that mantle." Her final comment
to me-which led to a young man standing next to me pulling me
away and advising me to leave before things got really ugly-was
something to the effect that she would "see me outside."
Was that a veiled threat, in the manner of a feudal lord to a
servant who has spoken out of line, or an invitation to speak
to her "outside" after the evening was over?
Today, the day after her assassination
by a suicide bomber, as I sat in my mother's home in Lahore,
stunned like all other Pakistanis at the enormity of what had
just happened in the country of my birth, I had reason to recall
that one and only face-to-face meeting I had had with her before
the first time she became an elected Prime Minister-the first
ever and youngest female Muslim Head of State. I felt then-and
do today, 25 years later-that Benazir was a product of her environment,
a daughter to a feudal scion-but, and this was a position I had
matured into over the intervening years-she was, despite that
background, and inspite of all of the corruption charges against
her and her husband, all probably true, though never proved in
a court of law to this day-a personally brave woman, and the
only one in our times of raging religious extremism and general
political apathy of much of the chattering classes in the face
of the entrenched military hegemony of the Musharraf regime in
Pakistan over the past decade--to take a public political stance
against both these dreadfully regressive aspects of the Pakistani
state and society today. She also-like her father before her,
and in line with the PPP manifesto-pointed unerringly to the
class divide as the fundamental problem besetting Pakistani society,
without addressing which, the politics of religious extremism
will continue to hold sway over much of the disenfranchised electorate.
"The extremists need a
dictatorship, and dictatorship needs extremists," she stated
to Sky News TV shortly after Musharraf declared Emergency Rule
in Pakistan on Nov 3rd, a few weeks after her own arrival in
Pakistan to contest military rule and participate in promised
elections after having been in political exile for many years
in London and Dubai, following the ouster of her government by
Nawaz Sharif first in 1990 and then again 1996 both on the basis
of massive corruption charges against her and her husband, Asif
Ali Zardari. Even though her party, the Pakistan People's Party,
secured the highest number of votes and secured 80 percent of
the seats in the National Assembly in the 2002 Oct general elections,
military strongman Pervez Musharraf's government amended Pakistan's
constitution to ban prime ministers from serving more than two
terms in office effectively banning Bhutto-and Nawaz Sharif-from
ever holding that office again (The News, Dec 28th, Section
iv: Benazir Special). Under pressure from the US following the
downward spiral in his popularity in the face of a deepening
economic and political malaise in Pakistan since early this year-sparked
off by the judicial crisis manhandled by Musharraf and the out-of-control
behavior of Islamist extremist groups creating havoc in the country
through the increase in suicide bombings and the state-within-a-state
created by the Red Mosque militants with ties to Al Qaeda which
also spiraled out of control and led to a showdown that cost
hundreds of lives during a sensational showdown between the militants
and the army on July 2007-America once again intervened in the
political situation of Pakistan and insisted that Musharraf lift
the Emergency rule he had imposed on the country on Nov 3rd and
hold free and fair elections allowing Benazir and Nawaz Sharif
to return from political exile to participate as leaders of their
respective political parties, thus paving the way for a return
to democratic rule.
Many Pakistanis felt then-and
still do-that Benazir's return was engineered by the US as a
counter to what the US government now feared could backfire badly
in their face-their over-reliance and overt backing of a military
regime growing increasingly unpopular among the citizenry and
leading to political unrest in this highly strategic and volatile
part of the world. They had backed Musharraf's illegitimate regime
because he had portrayed himself as the face of an "Enlightened
Moderation" philosophy-an Islam that could prove a counterweight
to the extremism of the Taliban/Al Qaeda type running rampant
in the tribal areas of NWFP and Baluchistan (and also ofcourse
because he was their ally in the "war against Terror").
What became really frightening to the West, however-and to most
Pakistanis as well over this past year-was that the extremist
groups and their violent tactics of female beheadings, burning
of CD and Video shops, suicide bombings, and so on had begun,
in the past year, to encroach upon those areas of Pakistan which
had previously seemed impregnable to this sort of madness, including
the major modern urban cities like Karachi and more recently
Islamabad, the capital.
Enter Benazir, the still charismatic
face of the PPP, even with her maligned feudalistic behavior
toward those in her party leadership she had much to fear from
due to their increasing popularity among the rank and file, such
as Aitzaz Ehsan, who recently distanced himself from the party
and its policy of granting "lifetime chairmanship"
to Benazir-understood by many in her own party like Aitzaz and
by many politically active civil society and student groups to
be an obstacle to genuine democracy in Pakistan. Yet-and this
is the point I wish to underscore most strongly in this essay-one
that I have been arguing vehemently for all day today in countless
heated conversations with family and friends and other concerned
citizens of the Pakistani polity-Benazir did what no one else
in the Pakistani leadership has had the guts to do. She openly
condemned Islamist extremism-and despite her earlier backing
of the Taliban regime in 1996-now took an unequivocal stand against
the Taliban and condemned terrorist acts committed by the Taliban
and their supporters. She repeatedly stated both prior to and
after her return to Pakistan in October that she and her party,
if elected, would take a bold stance against these terrorist
groups operating with seeming impunity most recently in the Swat
area of Pakistan and encroaching upon the citizens' civil and
human rights to live their lives in peace and without threat
of coercion to their own brand of a regressive Islamic code focused
most particularly on curtailing the rights of women to education
and freedom of movement and dress, as well as the civil liberties
of religious minorities including Shiite Muslims and Christians.
This anti-Islamist stance cost
her her life, as a suicide bomber finally succeeded in his mission
to destroy what his ilk perceived as a woman preaching the secularist
hedonism of the West, in cahoots with a Zionist and capitalist
Imperialist plot to destroy the Muslim world-the dar-ul-Islam.
Quoting Alfred Stepan and Aqil Shah, in "Pakistan's Real
Bulwark," (Washington Post, 5 May 2004, A29), the
well-known Islamic scholar Vali Nasr claims, "Finally, it
is Muslim Democracy-and not the creaky and brittle authoritarianisms
by which the Muslim world is so beset-that offers the whole world
its best hope for an effective bulwark against radical and violent
Islamism." 1 While Nasr may be correct in blasting the "brittle
authoritarianisms" under which so much of the Muslim world
continues to suffer-particularly Pakistan which has rarely been
free of such authoritarian, undemocratic rule in its 60-year
history as a nation-state-he is quite misguided, I think, in
his belief that what he is calling " Muslim Democracy"
is going to provide a solution to the problems that beset the
Muslim world today-if not the world in general. Nasr's contention
that "Muslim Democracy offers the Muslim world the promise
of moderation. As Islamists find themselves facing-or caught
up in-the Muslim Democratic dynamic, they will find themselves
increasingly facing the hard choice of changing or suffering
marginalization," has proved exactly the opposite as far
as Pakistan is concerned. In trying to prove that the Pakistan
Muslim League Party headed by Nawaz Sharif in the 1990s made
a virtue of pragmatism in dealing with the threat of Islamist
parties and their extremist agendas, by following and promoting
a "moderate Islamic" agenda that would not alienate
the Muslim vote bank (as opposed to a non-Muslim one-in a Muslim
country???)-Nasr states that, "Between 1993 and 1999, the
PML continued to push a mixture of business-friendly economic
policies and nationalist-cum-Islamic appeals. Infrastructure
development and globalization went hand-in-hand with a nuclear-weapons
program, confrontations with India, and rhetorical support for
Islamic legislation. Balancing the demands of the various constituencies
at which these postures were severally aimed was the PML's challenge.
Business interests supported peace with India, for instance,
while nationalists and Islamists wanted a tougher stance.
As the 1990s wore on, such
tensions began to undermine the PML's appeal to its Muslim-minded
voter base and gave the military angles to play against the party
in advance of the 1999 coup." Here, Nasr seems to be saying
that ultimately, the PML could not, in fact, balance its various
constituencies and hence did not succeed in keeping its "Muslim-minded"
voter base happy, despite its "rhetorical support for Islamic
legislation." Yet, in the very next paragraph of his essay,
Nasr wants to make a case for the PML's success in mobilizing
what he calls, "a rough and ready version of Muslim democracy"-which
worried the generals enough to make them engineer a coup against
Sharif's elected government. He writes, "there followed
Musharraf's 1999 coup against Sharif and the systematic dismantling,
under military tutelage, of the PML.
When Musharraf allowed controlled
elections to be held in 2002, Islamists did spectacularly well,
rebounding all the way up to a best-ever 20 percent vote share.
While Musharraf, especially since 9/11, has postured as Pakistan's
sole bulwark against radical Islamist rule, a more accurate statement
of the facts would say that the military did full-bore Islamism
a huge favor by yanking the PML from power and stopping the country's
uncertain yet real progress toward Muslim Democracy."
These are bizarre claims indeed,
and miss the obvious fact that neither Nawaz Sharif's pandering,
rhetorical or otherwise, "pragmatic" or not, to the
Islamists, nor the military's so-called philosophy of "Enlightened
Moderation" which was remarkably similar to Sharif's policy
of pragmatic accomodationism to the "Muslim-minded voter
bank," have succeeded in reducing the threat of extremism
in Pakistan. During her double-stint as Prime Minister of Pakistan,
even Benazir and the PPP could not push through their election
promises of repealing the Zina Ordinance promulgated against
women's fundamental human rights by the late Islamist dictator
Zia ul Haque, due to immense pressure from the Opposition which
was dominated by the presence of the Islamists and their political
allies. And so, to claim that something called "Muslim Democracy"
is the way forward out of the mess created by these extremist
Islamist groups in Muslim countries is nothing short of assuming
an ostrich-like posture in the face of the clear and present
danger of fanaticism, no matter what its economic and political
root causes may be. Yes, we must address the fundamental issue
of economic disparity between the haves and have-nots which has
spread like a cancer in the body politic of Pakistan over its
60 year history, and which surely has ots roots in the new imperialism
of globalization-from-above--but we cannot, must not, acquiesce
to Islamism, moderate or otherwise, as any sort of cure or even
explanation for the "anger of the masses" which exhibits
itself through these reprehensible violent acts.
Thus, despite whatever one
may have thought of Benazir and her politically marred leadership
stints in the short history of Pakistan-she did stand up toward
the end of her life in clear , unequivocal defiance of the politics
of pragmatism so admiringly espoused by Vali Nasr and other Muslim
moderates wishing to rescue something out of the quagmire of
radical political Islam. Hers is a choice I admire-without endorsing
her shortcomings as a leader--and it is a choice all thinking
Muslims should pay close attention to: one that articulates a
resounding "NO" to the encroachment of religion in
the business of state and governance. Despite the clear threat
to her life by Islamist groups and those who would use them to
secure their own political interests and power, Benazir told
Time magazine last month, "I am ready to die for my country."
Let us hope her death is not
in vain.
Dr. Fawzia Afzal-Khan is Professor of English at Montclair
State University, New Jersey. She is currently on sabbatical
in Pakistan, lecturing at Forman Christian College, working on
a research project on a cultural gendered history of Pakistan
via the iconic figure of the late great female singer Madame
Noor Jehan, singing revolutionary songs and protesting against
the Musharraf regime alongside student and civil society groups
demanding a restoration of the judiciary and of the pre-Nov 3rd
constitution. She can be reached at fak0912@yahoo.com
Notes
1 Nasr, Vali. "The Rise
of Muslim Democracy." Journal of Democracy. Vol. 16, no.
2, April 26, 2005. pp 13-27.
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