On another hand, Bhutto was on that same dictator’s side against violent religious extremism that in and of itself destabilizes their country and the whole region. Losing a leader of the opposition against that movement is not likely to strengthen anything any sane person wants strengthened, either.

On a third hand, there’s the nukes. Pakistan’s (who’s gonna get to control them), India’s (who’re worried about Pakistan’s), and China’s (the 800-pound gorilla of the region, with land borders on India and Pakistan both). China likes to play “sleeping dragon” a lot, but behind that facade, I don’t imagine they want a nuclear-armed civil war in any of their neighbors any more than we would.

Then there’s Afghanistan, no longer circling the bowl, more like spinning madly half a mile down the sewer line. The difference between Afghanistan and Pakistan gets pretty blurry in some of the border regions, such that chaos in either country ends up feeding and feeding on chaos in the other. Sort of like the Kashmir region on the Pakistan-India border, of which the Indians are (of course) painfully aware. Don’t get involved in a land war in Asia? I’m betting quite a few Asians wish they had the chance to take that advice.