Pakistan is an inch away from joining Iraq, Afghanistan and Russia as another crisis for U.S. foreign policy.

Matters have gone downhill since the days after the United States suffered the 9/11 attacks. Back then Pakistan, under the presidency of Gen. Pervez Musharraf, was the United States' best ally in South Asia, providing help in fighting the war on terrorism in neighboring Afghanistan.

The Pakistan government's fight against extreme Islamic elements and against their resistance to government rule in northwest tribal areas has gone badly since then. In addition, Pakistan's pursuit of greater democratization, promoted by the United States, resulted in the return and assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, the resignation of Mr. Musharraf as president, U.S. air attacks inside Pakistan and now a breakdown of the civilian coalition that succeeded Mr. Musharraf's government.

Presidential elections are set for Sept. 6. U.S. respect of democratic principles and Pakistan's right to determine its own future would have suggested that the United States not interfere in those elections. Instead, the Department of State learned, apparently to its surprise, that Afghan-born U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Zalmay Khalilzad has been providing "advice and help" off the books to one of the candidates, Asif Ali Zardari, who is Ms. Bhutto's widower and an old friend of Mr. Khalilzad's.

The United States should not have a favorite in the election. If it did, it probably should not be Mr. Zardari, whose crooked dealings were the cause of Ms. Bhutto's ouster -- twice -- from the prime ministership. The other complicating factor is the threat of the Pakistani military seizing power again. Possibly trying to cover that bet, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen met secretly with Pakistan's army Chief of Staff Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani on the U.S. carrier Abraham Lincoln in the Indian Ocean.

The best result for the United States would be a civilian president with a strong electoral mandate, providing a reasonable guarantee of long-term stability and improving prospects for internal and external peace for Pakistan. An uncoordinated U.S. policy will not help achieve that outcome.