Sorry legacy.

Triumphs - as the victory festivities for returning generals in ancient Rome were called - were quite the spectacle. An extravaganza where all the stops were pulled out and the general in question was given a welcome that was a sight to behold. Subdued versions of these triumphs formed the model for all military celebrations for centuries since then.

But perhaps the one aspect of Triumphs that some modern armies don't teach, is the tradition of having a man standing behind the general in the same chariot, constantly whispering into his ear sic transit gloria ('all glory fades') and memento mori ('remember you are mortal.')

The world might have seen a sea change since the days of the ancient Roman empire but those two lines are as immutable now as they were back then.

General Pervez Musharraf has died, as anyone who lives will, eventually. He leaves behind a sorry legacy, though; a fate that everyone that has lived does not have to share.

After carrying out one of the worst snafus in our military history, he toppled an elected government. Participated in a global war on terror, the terms of which would have been entirely different had the country been run at the time by an elected government, and not by a nervous military junta afraid of international sanctions. And then, to twist the knife, played a double-game in that very war, the consequences of which we are facing till this very day.

On the political front, though he wasn't the first dictator to have indulged in massive political engineering, it was still a harmful endeavour with or without the distinction of having been the first. Our ever stunted political evolution was set back decades.

The supposed economic progress that...