Destiny And Fate

Listening to coverage while spending most of yesterday on the road, one expert likened the Bhutto killing — in terms of the impact on Pakistan — to the assassination of JFK.

I don’t have a sense of how, or how well the metaphor transfers.  What I do know is that, seeing a photo like this, taken just seconds before the killing, one feels in close proximity to destiny and fate.  Another interviewee on the radio yesterday spoke about the pattern of propping up dictators, and the failure of the U.S. to help build “systems” or institutional structures in Pakistan.

On that level, this image is just another sad testament to how thoroughly the Administration squandered the opportunity to target South Asia, al-Qaeda and the Taliban after 9/11, and how much the world is paying for it.

Bhutto Assassination (NYT slide show)



(image: John Moore/Getty Images.  December 26, 2007.  Islamabad.  via nytimes.com)