The terrible assassination of Benazir Bhutto in Pakistan already has created crisis and widespread violence. It is too soon to know how stable that country can remain under the pressures now developing.
What is clear is that the issue of terrorism is going back to the top of the presidential race in the United States. Candidates stopped talking about it much in recent months; voters seemed bored. Anyone who follows the news knows that things are going better in Iraq, but it seemed until now that people had grown tired of the whole terrorism problem.
But, to paraphrase Trotsky, the terrorism problem apparently is not tired of them. Assassinations have to be on many minds as candidates whiz around the country in only semi-secure conditions. Moreover, the headlines in Pakistan will remind the electorate that we have been spared another Al Qaeda attack but we cannot be sure for the future.
You can figure out who will benefit politically. It has to be mature candidates with anti-terrorism credentials.
