Bhutto?

[asterroc]

As usual, I am filled with ignorance. The extent of my knowledge about Bhutto is that she was important b/c of being a female Prime Minister in an Arabic Muslim nation, and that she was very controversial, having been outed due to corruption charges twice.

I would like to be enlightened in three sentences or less. Anyone care to take up the challenge? I'm able to get longer versions online easily, the problem is that (as judes_39 put it to me on the phone the other day) Google not only can find everything on the internet, but it finds EVERYTHING on the internet, and as a result I'm having difficulty telling what the important parts are. This has always been my weakness since high school, that I cannot pull out the overall picture for being drowned in isolated facts.

So, three sentences (or as short as possible), who was Bhutto, why was she important, and why should I care?

Comments

[jrtom.livejournal.com]

I can't give you anything like a complete picture, but I can provide a few useful factoids. For more, I'd suggest the Wikipedia entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benazir_Bhutto

First, Pakistan is not an "Arabic" nation. I suspect you meant "Muslim".

Second, you should care because (a) a bunch of people in Pakistan care (and are both inclined to blame the current President (Musharraf) for her demise and willing to make a lot of trouble as a result), (b) Pakistan has nukes, and (c) Pakistan, or at least many of its people, have close ties to (neighboring) Afghanistan and to the conservative socioreligious movements that brought us al-Qaeda. If bin Laden is still alive, there's a good chance that he's in Pakistan, and an excellent one that some people in Pakistan know where he is regardless.

[spazzy444.livejournal.com]

She was a U.S. alley in the "War on Terror".
That is all I know.

[oh-chris.livejournal.com]

Google not only can find everything on the internet, but it finds EVERYTHING on the internet, and as a result I'm having difficulty telling what the important parts are.

and that's why we still need librarians!
...not that i did the research, i just got home. i'm merely pimping my profession.

Hokay. Asterisks are optional reading.

[allandaros.livejournal.com]

Bhutto was a corrupt ex-PM who was possibly involved in (setting up) a few assassinations during her two terms in office, including her own brother.* Recently returned from exile (to flee corruption charges), Bhutto was one of the two major opposition leaders to Pakistan's current leader, Pres. Pervez Musharraf.** With her death, the government is placed in a VERY awkward position: think of it as though, say, right before the 2004 election, John Kerry was assassinated.

*I'm not saying she was, but that she might have been.
**The other opposition leader, Nawaz Sharif, was deposed by Musharraf in a coup d'etat in...'98? '99? He was also massively corrupt, and not much of a nice guy either. Musharraf started taking action against Sharif after Sharif essentially tried to have him killed (and everyone else on his plane with him).

Re: Hokay. Asterisks are optional reading.

[zandperl.livejournal.com]

One of my questions is, were the corruption charges legit? (Like, if Bush had Kerry brought up on corruption charges, many of us wouldn't've believed them.) Was she actually corrupt, or was she a victim of the political climate, b/c she was opposing the party in power in a nearly totalitarian society?

[zandperl.livejournal.com]

Exactly. :) This's why teachers of all sorts are also still needed even in the information age.

Re: Hokay. Asterisks are optional reading.

[allandaros.livejournal.com]

No, she was actually very corrupt. She and her husband became very rich off of the Pakistani people. More Boss Tweed than John Kerry, possibly. :P