LONDON — The tragic killing of Benazir Bhutto in Pakistan has sent a raft of shock-wave messages round the world. Most of these have been carefully and lengthily noted and analyzed — such as the concern that Pakistan, labeled a frontline state in the fight against terrorism, could now collapse into chaos, or that Islamic fanatics could take over in the vacuum left by her death and take control of Pakistan's nuclear bomb, or the broader point — made with chilling candor by Muhammad Nawaz Sharif, a rival candidate in Pakistan's elections — that it is now "impossible to campaign."

But there is one deeper lesson so ugly, and so awkward, that it has scarcely been discussed at all, or even realized in some quarters: that Benazir Bhutto had become the candidate for election favored by the Washington administration and almost certainly became doomed the moment this became apparent.

This is another failure for the Bush presidency and for American diplomacy on a grand scale, and shows vividly how senior figures in Washington have simply not grasped how the world works.