Gavrilo Princip is a name that always comes to mind at times like this. They say that assassination is the severest form of censorship, but it seldom changes minds. It does suffer from the law of unintended consequences. Whatever his feelings for the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, I doubt that Gavrilo had the First World War as one of his desired aims.
Benazir Bhutto joins an illustrious group of political martyrs that includes John and Robert Kennedy, Indira, Rajiv and Mahatma Gandhi, Anwar Sadat, Yitzhak Rabin, Martin Luther King and Abraham Lincoln.
None of these assassinations extinguished the cause that the murdered on stood for. If anything is likely from the assassination of Miss Bhutto, it is that her People's Party will sweep the board in the forthcoming elections.
Isn't the Middle East a viper's pit? The English have a long, sad history of interference in many places in the world, and the India/Pakistan region is one of them.
ReplyDeleteThe Partition of India, with Muslims streaming into East and West Pakistan, and Hindus into India, was accompanyed by up to one million deaths.
The rage and violence continues today, with the added 'bonus' of a nuclear Pakistan at stake.
What a nightmare. Perhaps one day the Western powers will leave the rest of the world alone.
Had we left the Americans alone there would still be "Red Indians" in Manhattan.
ReplyDeletePartition in India was the desire of the people there, not imposed on them. Gandhi wanted a single state, but he was over-ruled by the Muslims and Hindus. As for the mess in the Middle East, if a blame game is appropriate, the Americans are more to blame than anyone as they funded and supported a Jewish homeland. Gandhi had great sympathies for the Jews, but despite the horror of Hitler, he believed in palestine for the Palestinians.
The movement of different people from one country to another has always happened; those who were already there have always resisted.
It is impossible to apply today's moral perspective to what our ancestors did. Most people in previous centuries thought that they were doing the right thing.
The country that is 'top dog' always wants to impose its way on the world. The Assyrians did it, so did the Babylonians, as did the Medes and the Persians. Then the Greeks did the same, then the Romans, then the Roman Catholic Church, then a variety of European powers, then the British and now the Americans.
Don't get me wrong, but were'nt the Brits the Administrators of Palestine? And where else could they find a place for all those ship-loads of jews exiled from all over Europe...Of course, in todays world America supports the Jews - tis their kindred souls...
ReplyDeleteHuman nature... when can we rise above that?
ReplyDelete