A Time For Everything

Today, amidst the usual turmoil and trouble due to upcoming elections, something has come to add to the chaos in a frightening way. The assasination of former Pakistani PM Benazir Bhutto has already had consequences felt everywhere. In an attack chalked up to rising insurgency, questions remain. The US seems to be taking an approach designed to keep everything relating to them peaceful and letting the rest fall as it may. Now, there are times when this philosophy is appropriate; this is not one of those times. The United States have been so busy policing the rest of the world that they have neither the resources, the will, nor the ability to judge when such assistance is really beneficial. The most the US has managed to do is express a wish for the elections to continue as planned, rather than aid the investigation and, if necessary, rethink their financial support, depending on the outcome of said investigation. With Bhutto dead and Sharif still refusing to participate, two out of three candidates are out. The boycott was proposed to promote legitimacy. The only thing different now is that Musharraf and his backers in the West can claim a sense of security, albeit shallow, by changing its focus from a resistance movement to an unfortunate happening that is meant to be mourned for a time and forgotten.
Order must be restored to the region. With rising militancy and acts of terrorism being joined now by increasing religious tensions in next-door India, something must change, but not the way we have been trying to do it. We have focused our attentions as a war in the Middle East, namely Iraq and Afghanistan. We will be in a sore place if we do not act in response. Keeping a single-minded attitude never solved anything. America may have backed the wrong plan of action, as evidenced now in current events. A different set of tactics is needed. Instead of backing a particular party or candidate, why not a system or establishment, such as the restoration of stability regardless of who leads the country we are dealing with? We made the same mistake in the Middle East, arbitrarily choosing sides in a matter that had little to do with us. At first it was simple: join the enemies of our enemies. After that it splintered out and our choices were poor, but still we pressed on with our ever-failing plan of action. This is a lesson history does not need repeating.

-Modern Diogenes-