For years, the United States has attempted to mould Pakistan. The result is not pretty: an unstable, undemocratic state that possesses nuclear weapons, border provinces that offer safe haven to Taleban and al-Qaeda forces, and a people who loathe the American government. The murder of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto is merely another blow to Washington's plans.
Since 2001, Pakistan has been a frontline state in allied efforts to eradicate al-Qaeda and suppress the Taleban in Afghanistan. Yet, despite receiving more than US$10 billion from the US since September 11, Islamabad has been an indifferent ally in the 'war on terror'.
Pakistan also embodies the problem of nuclear proliferation, having built an 'Islamic bomb' despite Washington's opposition. Worse, it has sent planeloads of nuclear materials around the world. Finally, President Pervez Musharraf has paid only the barest pretence to democratic reforms. Not that Pakistani democracy, which tended to alternate irregularly with military rule, met America's standards.
Former president Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, his daughter Benazir and Nawaz Sharif developed nuclear weapons, allied with the Taleban, supported Middle Eastern militants and tolerated religious persecution at home. They were thought to be profoundly corrupt.
For decades, the US provided aid, sold weapons, and offered diplomatic support to whatever regime happened to be in power in Islamabad. Yet America had minimal success in promoting domestic reform.
Only by threatening to bomb did the Bush administration get Islamabad's attention after September 11. Thus, Pakistan was forced to drop the Taleban regime as a client and enlist in the coalition against al-Qaeda. But it still resisted full co-operation with the US.
Mr Musharraf's growing isolation led the Bush administration to push even harder on the democratic front. It applied strong pressure on the president to allow Bhutto back into the country.