Rich, the Pakistani civilian government’s latent concern about the Taliban in Afghanistan is all well and good, but isn’t it a bit much for the Washington Post and the foreign minister to ask, so plaintively, “Why did Benazir die?” A better question would be, “Why did Benazir create the Taliban?”

That, in fact, is what Benazir Bhutto did. She also stoked the brutal jihad in Kashmir, in which Islamist terrorists have killed thousands of people. Here’s an excerpt from one speech where she actually went to the battlefield to fire up the jihadis: “The people of Kashmir do not fear death, because they are Muslim. The Kashmiris have the blood of the Mujahids and Ghazis [Afghan Muslim warriors]. The Kashmiris have the blood of Mujahideens, because Kashmiris are the heir of Prophet Muhammad, Hazrat Ali and Hazrat Umar.”

Bhutto, like many elements of today’s Pakistan, liked Islamism just fine — especially in Afghanistan — as long as she thought it could be controlled as a strategic weapon against India. Of course, it can’t be controlled, and, in the end, she was fatally undone by the monster she had nurtured. As we hear the wailing from the civilian government, let’s not forget that part of the history.

UPDATE: I’ve struck the word “Afghan” from the post above. I was confused by the word “Ghazi” which I thought referred specifically to Afghanistan. But the word I was thinking of was “Ghazni” (which, one learns via Andy Bostom’s invaluable Legacy of Jihad, refers to the Afghan Muslim ruling dynasty of Ghaznavid or the region known as Ghazni — or Afghanistan). The word Benazir Bhutto used in her rousing speech, Ghazi, was more accurately translated as “infidel slayers” by Muhammad Hussain, whose article is one of the places where the quote can be found. “Ghazi” (or “gazi”) is a general term relating to jihadi raiders that is not specific to Afghans or any other ethnicity.