But the loss of a man that Washington once called “indispensable” may not matter much, according to The Globe and Mail’s Marcus Gee.

“For all the praise lavished on him by Washington, Mr. Musharraf was a far less effective ally than he was portrayed to

be, posing as the stalwart ally but doing far less then he claimed,” Marcus Gee writes in his analysis America’s ‘indispensable’ strongman in today’s Globe.

“In the end, a new civilian government could prove at least as helpful, perhaps even more so.”

What do you think? What else do you want to know?

Mr. Gee will be online until 1 p.m. ET to take your questions about the impact of Mr. Musharraf’s resignation and what’s ahead for Pakistan.

Parthi Kandavel, from Scarborough, Ontario: I recommend reading a speech given by Alessandro Minuto Rizzo, NATO’s Deputy Secretary General, at India’s Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses. In his address, he speaks of the strategic need and growing relationship between NATO and India. Pakistan, despite the rhetoric, has not been able to produce on the Taliban within its own borders. Thus, to what extent is the inability of NATO to gain full cooperation of Pakistan (especially the ISI) in dismantling the Taliban a result of bad strategy of the British in dividing British India into current day Pakistan and India?

Your questions and Mr. Gee’s answers appear at the bottom of this page .

Marcus Gee is a Globe reporter and columnist covering the Asia-Pacific region. Born in Toronto, he graduated from the University of British Columbia in 1979 with a degree in modern European history, then worked as a reporter for The Province, Vancouver’s morning newspaper. He spent four years in Asia in the early 1980s, the first three in Hong Kong as an editor, writer and correspondent for Asiaweek magazine, the last as a reporter for United Press International in Manila and Sydney. He joined the Globe in 1991 as an editorial writer and has won two National Newspaper Awards for his commentary.

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