The Question: After Benazir Bhutto's assassination on Thursday, what's next for Pakistan?

This is a sad story. Many rumors and stories will certainly be made about some conspiracy involved. One can't pretend to know the truth when writing from so far away, but some of the issues surrounding the last few months in Pakistan need to be talked about. It is clear that President Musharraf's undemocratic decision to declare emergency rule, to dissolve the court system and to bank independent media was just that: in other words, his attempts at retracting that decision were clearly just window dressing. In fact, the idea that democracy is no more than elections has proven once again to be futile. If democracy doesn't also include a truly independent judiciary, separation of powers, subordination of the army to civilian authority and of course a truly free media, it is not democracy. This has not been the case in Pakistan in the past few months, or in the past years, for that matter.

The U.S. role has to be talked about in all honesty. It isn't something for Washington to be proud of. I am not saying that the Americans have anything to do with what happened to Bhutto, but for sure they put a lot of energy into supporting Ms. Bhutto and pushed her to return to Pakistan when the country was not ready for her. The U.S. commitment to democratic change in Pakistan was never very convincing; there must have been behind-the-scenes dealings. Knowing a lot of that will certainly contribute to a better knowledge of the sad events that preceded and possibly led to this political and personal tragedy.