WASHINGTON: History does not always announce itself with thunder. Sometimes it arrives as a decision — taken calmly, consciously and against fear. “I am returning to Pakistan on October 18 to coalesce the forces of moderation against extremism,” Benazir Bhutto said in Washington in 2007. “Our goal, quite literally, is to save democracy in Pakistan.” She made that statement on September 25, 2007, at meetings hosted by the Middle East Institute and later at the Russell Senate Building. It was not a slogan, it was a commitment — one she fully intended to honour. I had met Benazir countless times over the years — in Pakistan, in London and in Washington — across different phases of her political life. She could be warm and disarming, cautious and guarded, sharply analytical and politically defiant, sometimes all of the above within the same conversation. But on that September day in Washington, there was a particular clarity about her. She had already decided. As she was leaving the Middle East Institute, I asked...