02-23-2004, 05:00 PM
Interesting Editorial from Wisconsin...time for our letter writers to get busy B)
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Editorial: Pakistan: The unusual ally
From the Journal Sentinel
Posted: Feb. 16, 2004
An asterisk has to be appended to President Bush's assertion that those who support terrorists are as guilty as the terrorists themselves. Bush has given a pass to a military dictator who shields - even honors - a man who sold nuclear weapons expertise and equipment to nations described by the president himself as members of an "axis of evil."
The administration's supine acquiescence in this weapons trafficking calls into question Bush's professed desire to curb the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and even his commitment to the war on terrorism.
On Feb. 4, an eminent Pakistani scientist named Abdul Qadeer Khan went on television to admit what had been widely believed for years - that he provided nuclear weapons expertise and equipment to Libya, Iran and North Korea. Khan professed "deepest regrets and unqualified apologies" for these deals. Although the deals went on for some 20 years, he claimed the transactions were made without authorization from the government, now headed by Gen. Pervez Musharraf.
Far from punishing Khan for this supposedly secret trafficking, Musharraf quickly pardoned him and said the errant scientist was "still my hero" for having led the project that gave Pakistan a nuclear bomb. And far from condemning Musharraf for this whitewash, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher saluted him for his commitment to the non-proliferation effort.
Bush has famously portrayed Iran, Iraq and North Korea as parts of an axis of evil. Last week, he even proposed a seven-point plan to make it more difficult to sell nuclear equipment on the black market to rogue governments and terrorist gangs. But when Boucher was asked to comment on Musharraf's decision to pardon a man who became a multimillionaire in this same black market, the State Department spokesman retreated to the shade of diplomatic restraint. "I don't think it's a matter for the United States to sit in judgment on," he said.
Perhaps this hypocrisy can be explained by the putative need to maintain Musharraf as an ally in the war on terrorism. But if Musharraf is not strong enough to punish Khan - if he is forced to pardon a man who, by investigators' accounts, is the worst criminal in the history of nuclear weapons proliferation - how effective an ally can he be?
If, on the other hand, Musharraf could have punished Khan but chose not to, then his partnership in the struggle against terrorism is merely rhetorical, and so is his partnership with the United States.
It is time for Bush to tell his wayward partner that the price of continued U.S. support is his signature on the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and the acceptance of regular inspections by the United Nations. If Musharraf can't or won't do that, he's not much of an ally.
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<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Editorial: Pakistan: The unusual ally
From the Journal Sentinel
Posted: Feb. 16, 2004
An asterisk has to be appended to President Bush's assertion that those who support terrorists are as guilty as the terrorists themselves. Bush has given a pass to a military dictator who shields - even honors - a man who sold nuclear weapons expertise and equipment to nations described by the president himself as members of an "axis of evil."
The administration's supine acquiescence in this weapons trafficking calls into question Bush's professed desire to curb the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and even his commitment to the war on terrorism.
On Feb. 4, an eminent Pakistani scientist named Abdul Qadeer Khan went on television to admit what had been widely believed for years - that he provided nuclear weapons expertise and equipment to Libya, Iran and North Korea. Khan professed "deepest regrets and unqualified apologies" for these deals. Although the deals went on for some 20 years, he claimed the transactions were made without authorization from the government, now headed by Gen. Pervez Musharraf.
Far from punishing Khan for this supposedly secret trafficking, Musharraf quickly pardoned him and said the errant scientist was "still my hero" for having led the project that gave Pakistan a nuclear bomb. And far from condemning Musharraf for this whitewash, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher saluted him for his commitment to the non-proliferation effort.
Bush has famously portrayed Iran, Iraq and North Korea as parts of an axis of evil. Last week, he even proposed a seven-point plan to make it more difficult to sell nuclear equipment on the black market to rogue governments and terrorist gangs. But when Boucher was asked to comment on Musharraf's decision to pardon a man who became a multimillionaire in this same black market, the State Department spokesman retreated to the shade of diplomatic restraint. "I don't think it's a matter for the United States to sit in judgment on," he said.
Perhaps this hypocrisy can be explained by the putative need to maintain Musharraf as an ally in the war on terrorism. But if Musharraf is not strong enough to punish Khan - if he is forced to pardon a man who, by investigators' accounts, is the worst criminal in the history of nuclear weapons proliferation - how effective an ally can he be?
If, on the other hand, Musharraf could have punished Khan but chose not to, then his partnership in the struggle against terrorism is merely rhetorical, and so is his partnership with the United States.
It is time for Bush to tell his wayward partner that the price of continued U.S. support is his signature on the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and the acceptance of regular inspections by the United Nations. If Musharraf can't or won't do that, he's not much of an ally.
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