Bhutto's departure.

The news of Benazir Bhutto's assassination comes as a shock, but not much of a surprise. Not much of a surprise either is that the Bush administration's Pakistan policy has gone up in flames. The whole idea of injecting Bhutto into the Pakistan vortex in the hopes of propping up their bastard in Islamabad, Musharraf, was a disaster just waiting to happen.

I thought initially that getting either Nawaz Sharif or Bhutto back into the mix might be the least of a bunch of really bad options in Pakistan, but it soon became clear that Condi & Co. were mainly fixated on giving Musharraf's regime a fig leaf, nothing more.

Now all bets are off.

I'd say Misharraf's days are numbered and it's just a matter of picking another strongman to do our bidding. That's probably what the Brians-Trust in the administration are hoping anyway. What happens, though, if the whole thing just implodes? I'm getting the distinct impression that this foreign policy crew we've got has no freaking idea who they're dealing with in Pakistan.

Musharraf talks a good game about democracy and the GWOT, but he's done precious little for us these past seven years. A few of the usual suspects rounded up here and there, and a whole lot of maneuvering to cover his own ass.

Musharraf is clever like a fox, but I don't think he's the sharpest knife in the draw. There's much speculation about who carried out this assassination, and al-Qaeda is right there towards the top of the list, but her disappearance from the scene sure make Musahrraf's life a lot easier. Sharif is barred from becoming PM and the PPP has been decapitated.

That just leaves . . . Pervez Musharraf.

A note of interest:

Atimes reports today that Mustafa Abu al-Yazid, the head of al-Qaeda operations in Afghanistan told the Atimes that 'the death squad consisted of Punjabi associates of the underground anti-Shi’ite militant group Lashkar-i-Jhangvi, operating under al-Qaeda orders."

And who has ties to Lashkar-i-Jhangvi? The ISI, of course.