Notes from the Aspen Ideas Festival -- See full coverage

Gen. Pervez Musharraf, everyone's favorite former Pakistani junta leader and a perennially-future presidential candidate, is speaking on stage at the Aspen Ideas Festival now to David Bradley, the chairman and owner of the Atlantic Media Company, and said, in response to series of questions from David about Pakistan's support for anti-American, pro-Taliban terror groups, that, "India is trying to create an anti-Pakistan Afghanistan." Excellent answer, no? Entirely typical, actually. The last time I was in Pakistan, various analysts and government officials told me that Pakistan was outgrowing its fixation on India, but it's just not true. It's also not true that the army is maturing in its understanding of the role of civilian leadership; Musharraf, who does not speak for the army anymore (he's not very liked by the generals he brought to power), nevertheless captured the army's belief in its own righteousness when he told David, "The state is being run into the ground and the people are once again running to the army to save the state."

Pakistan's democracy has never been given time to develop -- the military has made sure of that, time and time again.