WASHINGTON — The Bush White House, which played host to the Pakistani prime minister just a few weeks ago, maintains that its reliance on Pakistan as an ally in the war against terrorism, and its substantial aid to the nation, will be undeterred by the resignation of former President Pervez Musharraf.

Yet the departure of an Army general who ran both his military and his nation marks the end of an era in which critics have accused President George W. Bush of having not so much a Pakistan policy as a Musharraf policy.

That is an era marked by tension and disappointment since the days immediately following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, when then-Secretary of State Colin Powell called Musharraf to tell him that he was "either with us or against us."

The message was followed by a more ominous one from Powell's deputy, Richard Armitage, according to an account that Musharraf gave in his memoirs published in the fall of 2006 and disputed by Armitage:

"Armitage added … that we had to decide whether we're with America or with the terrorists, but that if we chose the terrorists, then we should be prepared to be bombed back to the Stone Age," Musharraf claimed.

Musharraf wrote of the "acute loneliness" he suffered at the time. "There would be a violent and angry reaction if we didn't support the United States," he wrote. "Thus, the question was: If we do not join them, can we confront them and withstand the onslaught? The answer was no."

Yet since then, critics contend that the U.S. has gotten little for the more than $10 billion that it has steered to Pakistan in aid since Sept. 11, half of it directed toward counterinsurgency efforts, according to the Washington-based National Security Network, which contends that "for years, the Bush administration had a Musharraf policy, not a Pakistan policy."

The Bush administration maintains that Pakistan is the ally, not a departed general.

"We strongly support the democratically elected civilian government in its desire to modernize Pakistan and build democratic institutions," Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in a statement Monday.

In Texas, where Bush was on vacation, the president already is focused on the new government. "President Bush is committed to a strong Pakistan that continues its efforts to strengthen democracy and fight terror," the White House said in a statement Monday.

Asked how the resignation of an ally in the region cannot have an unsettling effect on the war against terrorism, National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe told reporters, "We're going to continue working with the government of Pakistan. The president had a good meeting with the prime minister a couple of weeks ago in Washington."

Between meetings with Pakistani Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani at the White House on July 28, Bush pledged continuing economic support for Pakistan and a joint commitment to rooting out radical militants inside the country.

"The Pakistanis realize that the threat of terrorism, the threat of extremism, is a threat to them, as well as the rest of the world," Johndroe said Monday.