Constants throughout the world

The last couple of days I've been shaking my head as we see a pattern continue...

The assassination of Benazir Bhutto in Pakistan earlier this week was very disconcerting, but hardly a surprise. It didn't take long before I began to realize how much her life and situation resembles that of the Kennedy family.

President John F. Kennedy had commented in mid to late 1963 that anyone who wanted to kill a US president could do so if they were essentially willing to trade their life for that president's. (A psychological barrier being alluded to, there!) The 1954 Lincoln limousine that he was riding through Dallas in on 22 November 1963 had a bullet resistant top, which President Kennedy had opted to leave off for the motorcade, a definite manifestation of a fatalistic attitude he had somehow adopted during the last days of his life.

President Kennedy had exposed himself to the public, ostensibly comfortable taking the risk that anyone who wanted to do so could attempt to strike him with a ballistic weapon, most likely, although not necessarily limited to, a firearm. Former Pakistani Prime Minister Bhutto apparently had few qualms about taking the same chances by standing up through the open sun roof of the vehicle she was riding in, so her supporters could see her.

A little more than ten years ago, Bill Clinton made a reelection campaign stop in my home town, intending to stump at the local community college here. After arriving at the airport, the motorcade took what one could consider a 'secondary direct route' to get across the city to the college, a distance of not quite ten miles. Instead of cutting straight through town on the US highway that once was a main thoroughfare, the convoy of vehicles turned north a mile or so west of town and instead took a paved street that ran straight through the north side of the city. At a major rail crossing a couple of blocks from my house, the president ordered his driver to stop the vehicle. Hundreds of people had gathered along the sides of the street and the president alighted the limousine and spent a minute or two waving and shaking hands. Understandably, the Secret Service protective detail pretty much had a conniption. They probably had it easy. George W. Bush drives them absolutely nuts, doing all kinds of things they can't stand: driving vehicles (long a strict 'no-no' for a sitting president), flying aircraft (was it an S-3 'Viking' or one of the remaining A-6 'Intruder' variants he flew part of the way out to the USS Abraham Lincoln in?), operating chainsaws, and Lord only knows what else. I'm sure they're not too fond of his bicycling, either!

Ms. Bhutto was, according to her supporters and a trauma surgeon who spoke on condition of anonymity, shot from behind by an assailant with an automatic pistol. Of the three rounds fired, one is said to have hit her in the back of the neck, and the other in the shoulder. Both were through and through wounds, and I gather that had she lived, she would have been a quadriplegic or at least more or less an invalid. President Kennedy was shot from behind, and had he somehow survived, would have been mostly the same way.

I honestly don't know what kind of pistol Ms. Bhutto's assassin attacked her with, but more than likely it was a military type that fired full metal jacketed ammunition in 7.62, 7.65, or 9mm caliber sizes. All are rather ubiquitous in that part of the world.

The Tokarev pistol fires 7.62x25mm cartridges that launch a small, 'hardball' bullets at a very fast 1400 or so feet per second. Such guns that have been 'liberated' from the People's Army of China have caused all kinds of mayhem in Shanghai and other cities. In fact, bullet resistant vests had to be upgraded considerably just because these little 'zingers' were so hard to stop!

7.65mm is what is known in the States as a .32 caliber. European police and military officers carried .32's for decades, and naturally they've filtered to other parts of the world. Ian Fleming's James Bond historically carried a 7.65mm Walther PPK, short for Polezi Pistole Kriminal -literally, an undercover police officers' or detective's pistol.

There's any number of 9mm pistols available worldwide, but in that part of the world and in this day, the probable range of 'usual suspects' is from the 9x18mm Makarov (from Russia with love, no less!) to the 9x19mm NATO cartridge widely used by modern military forces in the Western Hemisphere and beyond. The point is: it was a gun that was either former government property somewhere or was at least intended to be.

Lee Harvey Oswald bought a model 1891 Carcano rifle that had once belonged to Italy, and as far as we know, he used surplused government contract full metal jacket 6.5mm Carcano ammunition. Ironically, the rifle Oswald ordered from a subsidiary of Pepsi Company for $19 was built at the one Italian arsenal noted for producing exceptionally accurate rifles. It had also been upgraded by rebarreling to accommodate the new 7.7mm cartridge Italy aspired to in the late 1930's, and was converted back to 6.5mm after the Italian government realized that the onset of WWII hostilities was going to hinder implementation of their upgrade program and create a logistical nightmare by having two different service rifle cartridges in the supply system. I doubt there was any way Oswald would've known or specified this while ordering the gun - it was just 'luck of the draw' as far as which one was shipped to him - and I doubt he ever knew it. Whether he did realize it or not, he got an old rifle with a near-new (twenty years, most of which was storage time) barrel that had likely seen relatively few bullets squeezed through its bore. Of course, that rifle is now property of the US Government and in nearly 50 years, there's been plenty of time to research its origins! I don't think we'll know much about the weapon in the Bhutto killing. It would need to be recovered first, which may be a bit tricky given the circumstances...

Ms. Bhutto lost her father, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, and I believe, two of her brothers, before her passing. All were ultimately victims of their political ambitions and the resulting violence. JFK's older brother, Joseph, was killed while carrying out a special mission in 'Project Anvil' as a naval aviation officer on 12 August 1944. He was piloting a PB4Y-1, the US Navy version of the Army Air Force's B-24D 'Liberator' bomber, loaded with over ten tons of Amatol and en route to a V-2 ballistic missile launch site in Nazi occupied France. The plan had been for Lt. Kennedy to fly the plane to 2000 feet and parachute away from it as it continued to its target via remote control. Apparently there was a malfunction with the fusing for the explosives, and the plane detonated twenty minutes after takeoff. Most of us know about the young John Kennedy's ill fated tour of duty in the Pacific theatre as commander of the PT-109.

Patriotic or career minded, either way both brothers could definitely be said to be victims of 'ambition'. Most of us also know what happened to President Kennedy's younger brother, Robert, in 1968. And his son, John F. Jr., in 1999. I won't even go into the trouble 'ol Ted has been into through the years, though he does always seem to get reelected to his senate seat with relative ease!

Sometimes things just seem to run in families. In the case of both the Kennedys and the Bhuttos, I think it's fair to say that most of these difficulties wouldn't have occurred had then been content to just be 'normal'. Then again, few if any of us reading this would ever know who the heck they were had they been only average. We'd have no reason to know about them if they hadn't been famous for doing the things they're known for doing, and being.

Naturally, about two days after it happened, it would seem that a government cover-up is under way, as the Pakistani government claims that the three bullets fired missed Ms. Bhutto completely and that she died of concussion and blunt force trauma after the blast from the suicide bomber a moment later slammed her against the roof of her vehicle. No surprise upon hearing about this!

I see today that remaining members of Ms. Bhutto's family are taking over leadership of the Pakistan People's Party, which was founded by the late senior Bhutto decades ago. The pattern continues!

The Kennedy's also had a lasting family legacy as part and parcel of thier political endeavors. Such was never intended by our founding fathers, but seems acceptable to the American public today. John Adams and John Quincey Adams were uncle and nephew. Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt shared a similar relationship. There have perhaps been a few others that escape me right now. Certainly George H.W. and George W. Bush are a stellar example, and there's no doubt that Senator Clinton is aiming for a similar goal in seeking the presidency. Royalty and aristocracy seem to be one of the enduring traits of humankind, rightly or wrongly.

I often remind people that you can have ACTION, or you can have SECURITY. You can 'hole-up' at home, and you'll be pretty safe. You'll also live a dull, boring, life, and probably not accomplish much while you're at it. Or you can get out there, take risks, and make a name for yourself. Even if you don't become famous, you can make a difference somewhere and perhaps touch a lot of people in the process. It doesn't necessarily have to be political, either.

Don't you think that's worth taking a few risks in life?

-Tim Gordon