August 18, 2007
Pakistan: the land of radical Islam and WMDs
In 2003 the U.S.-led coalition invaded Iraq in order to keep weapons of mass destruction out of the hands of Islamic fundamentalists. We have since discovered that while Iraq, like most of the Middle East, has plenty of fiery young men who are ready to die for Allah, the country never had any WMDs.
But Pakistan is different story. Pakistan has been a nuclear-armed power since 1998. Pakistan openly acknowledges its nuclear arsenal. Islamabad isn’t hiding anything.
Unfortunately, Pakistan also has a large faction of Islamic fundamentalists. While the Musharraf administration is nominally secular and pro-American, there are many Islamist elements within the government. The Pakistani intelligence service (along with our other “friends” in the Muslim Middle East---the Saudis) were largely responsible for funding the rise of the Taliban in Afghanistan. Pakistani intelligence agents are also suspected of aiding Iran’s nuclear program.
In recent months, Pakistan has been convulsed by violent pro-Islamist demonstrations, and there are indications that Musharraf’s hold on power may be in jeopardy. This raises questions about the security of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons.
Naturally, Islamabad wants the outside world to believe that everything is hunky-dory:
"Pakistan's strategic assets are completely safe and secure, and the highest level of institutionalized protection is accorded to them," the Foreign Ministry said in a news release.
It cited a spokesperson who "dismissed the concerns raised by certain inspired and tendentious reports in the Western media about the safety of Pakistan's strategic assets."
"Pakistan's command and control structures are not controlled by individual personalities but are institutionalized and multi-layered to ensure safety and security at multiple levels," the release said.—CNN
What did we expect the Pakistani government to say? The bottom line is that a radical Islamic government in Islamabad is a distinct possibility at some point in the future. If this occurs, then Pakistan will suddenly become a far more urgent security issue than Saddam Hussein’s Iraq ever was.