The deeply disturbing assassination Thursday of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto has the effect of a boulder crashing down a mountainside. Whether it will trigger a landslide in this volatile region remains to be seen, and tragically there is not much more the U.S. can do but observe, and perhaps regret the climate it helped create there.

Ms. Bhutto’s death recalls the assassinations 40 years ago of presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy and civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. Despite the depth of those terrible losses, most Americans clung to their belief in our democracy and its rule of law and remained confident the assassinations would not tip political power toward one faction. Pakistanis are not so fortunate.

Fingers of blame will – and should – be pointed at Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf; whether he actually knew of or encouraged the attack on Ms. Bhutto and her supporters is almost irrelevant. President Musharraf’s dismissal of the nation’s Supreme Court justices and seizing of military power in the fall were like a declaration of war against Pakistan’s democratic tradition. The president’s dictatorlike power grab also may have emboldened Islamic extremists who oppose the reforms Ms. Bhutto would have brought – and her party may still bring – to the government.

President Bush’s response to President Musharraf’s power grab in November, publicly at least, was tepid and reflective when it should have been an unequivocal declaration of outrage, the sort of plainspoken edicts for which Mr. Bush is known. The U.S. relies on Pakistan’s support in its military efforts against al-Qaida and the Taliban in Afghanistan. That support may have weakened President Musharraf, but that political cost should not have deterred the U.S. from continuing to advocate – without violence – for democratization of the region.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called the assassination “an assault on stability.” Whether that assault proves fatal to Pakistan’s stability depends mostly on Mr. Musharraf’s response. A genuine overture to Ms. Bhutto’s party to share decision-making in the coming weeks leading up to the national elections – which may be delayed – would be a good first step.

The U.S. should publicly and privately bring as much pressure as it can to bear on Mr. Musharraf to do what he can to win back his people’s confidence. There is more at stake than U.S. interests and the future stability of Pakistan; as has been seen with the toppling of Saddam Hussein, sudden changes of power in the region can trigger a dangerous game of dominos.

In the aftermath of the attack Thursday, Ms. Bhutto’s lawyer Babar Awan told reporters, “… she has been martyred.” The description seems apt. What will play out is that the former prime minister will be remembered as a martyr for democracy, or as another tragic statistic in the spiraling failure of the diverse people of the region to find common ground.