In the fall of 1988 I was a senior in high school and captain of the debate team. My chosen form of debate was "Model Congress". Each participant would write a bill or resolution and present it to the group. Success depended on your ability to argue for or against these resolutions. With 20+ participants in a 4 hour session, competition was intense. We faced the same high schools in a series of debate meets from November to March. On the first of these a debater named Chris Anderson from another school introduced a resolution condemning the transfer of 12
Huey helicopters from the US Army to Pakistan. It was a clever resolution because it was hard to form a convincing counter-argument because he never explained why the US government sent the helicopters to Pakistan in the first place.
Anderson went for it again in the second meet and I rose to speak against his resolution. My argument was simple. The United States should trust
Benazir Bhutto and support her in any way possible. At that time I didn't really know anything about Bhutto except what I had read in Newsweek. Chris and I were able to monopolize the debate because we were the only ones who were prepared to speak on the subject. That meet I took the first place prize and Chris the second place prize. After the meet we agreed to do additional research and continue our debate in future competitions. I spent hours reading everything I could about Bhutto,
Zia al-Huq, and the history of Pakistan. We successfully debated the merits of the US-Pakistan relationship all the way to the state championship, which Chris won and I took second place.
The lasting result of that season is a deep admiration for Benazir Bhutto and a strong interest in Pakistani politics. Yesterdays' assassination of Bhutto is a tragedy for Pakistan, a country that cannot afford any more instability. Now that I call south Asia home, the stability of the region is an important concern. From all appearances it is going to be a long winter in Pakistan before peace and stability return.