The leaders of the U.S. Congress and administration saw no benefit in supporting Bhutto and other moderate leaders in the country and banked the foreign policy on one man, Musharraf.

Musharraf controlled the military and was ready and willing to fight terrorists and domestic religious groups at the expense of democratic institution in Pakistan.

The extremists groups had shown their displeasure when Bhutto returned from the self-imposed exile to Pakistan last month with a bomb blast that killed more than one hundred and thirty people on her arrival. She narrowly missed the attack.

However, today’s attack, which most political and military observers in Pakistan link to the work of militants and terrorist groups, killed Bhutto for her belief in Western values and association with Western leaders, who also rejected her when she was out of power.

It is sad to see a leader of a troubled nation that had worked to bring the democratic values in a country that has seen so little progress in terms of good governance and remains as one of the poorest nation on the planet, been betrayed by the powers in Washington and killed by the extremist violence.

Benazir Bhutto paid for the second time today, this time with her life for defending the Western and democratic principles that extremists hated. Earlier she was relegated as a leader with no future potential by Western leaders.

The U.S. and its allies relied solely on the military administration of Musharraf for the last eight years which has failed in every respect in improving lives of common man and in controlling terrorism at the borders of Afghanistan and India.

Bhutto paid with her life for supporting democratic values while Musharraf with dictatorial powers enjoys widespread support of the Western nations.

Democracy in Pakistan may have to wait for many more years and the future of the democratic institution looks bleak in the face of current violence and military rule.

Pakistani leaders have paid more attention to the wishes of the leaders in America, Saudi Arabia, and China and have generally ignored interests of their own people.

Until leaders of Pakistan focus on improving lives of common people, security in the nation, and build democratic institution without external interference, moderate voices in Pakistan will not find a platform and younger generation will find greater meaning in religious fundamentalism.