Kimball is right to criticize the hagiogrification of Benazir Bhutto in the West. She was a “martyr for democracy,” the story line goes — but she really represented the dynasitic element in Pakistani politics. Her father founded her political party in the 1970s; she inherited on his death, and leadership is now being passed to her son. Ali Bhutto launched Pakistan’s nuclear program in the 1970s, and tilted that country in the direction of the Soviet Union during his tenure, nationalizing Pakistani industries along the way.
Her death is a setback for Western hopes in Pakistan and the region in general. We do not need to idealize her in order to see this; indeed, such idealization will make it harder to identify a successor who might pick up her mantle.