According to John Bolton, the former American ambassador to the United Nations, he says he has "no confidence in the political leaders’ ability to secure Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal".
He also thinks that by pushing Musharraf to try and get him to act democratically and let Benazir Bhutto back in the country, that we may actually have contributed to her death: "I think the notion that by bringing Benazir Bhutto back to Pakistan we could facilitate moving to a Democratic system has obviously turned out to be incorrect."
Now there is a diplomat's phrasing...
"This tragedy should guide us now as to what we do next, which I think ought to be declaring a time-out on internal politics; let’s re-stabilize, it probably will require a period of martial law. But let’s keep our eyes on the prize. For the United States, that’s the security of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons.”
Yup, don't want them floating around that part of the world, do we?
Rico says this is all probably a no-win situation. Let's just hope no one (oh, al-Qaeda, say) gets their hands on a nuke out of Pakistan's couple of dozen bombs. A nuclear detonation on American soil would be too much of a wake up call to the American people, thank you... (But it'd help sell the hell out of Skeleton Cay, new my book on the very subject, available next year from Amazon...)
29 December 2007
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By acting as victims, we've made that scenario - a nuke going off on American soil - thousands of times more likely. Terrorism isn't about killing people: it's about terrorizing - i.e., implanting the fear in the minds of the living. By that parameter, OBL and Al Qaida have succeeded beyond their wildest dreams: Americans are now terrorized beyond belief. Casual strip searches, DHS, police departments freaking out over blinking LEDs - we're there, baby.
The next wake-up call is coming. We've guaranteed it with our behavior.
-- Ben
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