02-18-2004, 02:35 PM
Newsletter at http://www.indiacause.com
-------------------------------
Within Australia, we have not generally realised just what a profound crisis the world faces in Pakistan. On the face of this week's revelations, Pakistan has engaged in far worse nuclear proliferation than North Korea has ever dreamed of. We know now that Pakistan has actually done what the US, and the rest of us, only fear what the North Koreans might do.
The Americans bear a fair degree of indirect responsibility for this state of affairs. They pioneered the jihad technique for attacking the Soviets in Afghanistan, which Pakistan now uses against India in Kashmir and which has become an uncontrollable, worldwide movement.
<span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>Pakistan's chilling sense of humour</span>
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/commo...5E25377,00.html
The Australian
YOU'VE got to love the Pakistanis, they're the world's greatest jokers.
This week, their top nuclear scientist, Dr AQ Khan, told the nation that he had sent nuclear weapons secrets to Iran, Libya and North Korea, but that he had done it on his own. He was deeply sorry for this, but he acted entirely on his own and, get this, entirely in good faith, whatever that means.
Pakistan's dictator, General Pervez Musharraf, made another broadcast confirming that Khan had acted alone and that no one from the army had helped him.
This is pure farce and a grim theatre designed to offer the flimsiest fig leaf to what is probably the single greatest act of nuclear proliferation in the world's history.
Stopping the spread of nuclear weapons has always been one of Australia's very highest foreign policy aims. It was one of the main reasons we participated in the war in Iraq.
It is worth reflecting that Australia is, for a country of our size, uniquely incapable of withstanding any nuclear strike, as virtually all of our population is clustered in six isolated coastal cities.
Six missiles and the Australian story is more or less over. That utter doom scenario has been made substantially more possible by the grotesque actions of Pakistan, which has engaged in some of the worst rogue state behaviour of any nation in our time. Musharraf, of course, immediately pardoned Khan.
I don't think there is a single person anywhere in the world who believes that Khan proliferated nuclear technology without the complete connivance of the Pakistani military. And the key man in the military for a long, long time has been Musharraf himself.
Khan's statement: "I also wish to clarify that there was never any kind of authorisation for these activities by the Government" is literally an insult to our intelligence.
If for a single second anyone took the statement seriously it would mean that the Pakistani military and Government are the most incompetent in history, manifestly unfit to be near any nuclear weapon under any circumstances.
But, of course, the Pakistani military is nothing like that incompetent. The Government knew exactly what he was doing at all times.
Within Australia, we have not generally realised just what a profound crisis the world faces in Pakistan. On the face of this week's revelations, Pakistan has engaged in far worse nuclear proliferation than North Korea has ever dreamed of. Yet the US, under both Clinton and Bush, has kept the prospect of military action against North Korea on the table to deter it from actually going into full scale nuclear weapon production and possibly exporting this to other nations. We know now that Pakistan has actually done what the US, and the rest of us, only fear what the North Koreans might do.
But this is not a historical crisis, something entirely in the past.
Musharraf has recently survived two assassination attempts. In New Delhi, where I've spent the past week, there was some serious speculation that the first assassination attempt was perhaps a fake, designed to impress on the Americans the depth of domestic opposition Musharraf faces and his indispensability. But no one thinks the second assassination attempt, in which the bomb missed Musharraf's car by seconds, was a fake and there is widespread suspicion of involvement by dissident factions of the army.
The whole future of Pakistan is truly in play. Musharraf, despite the shocking revelations of this week, is probably the least bad alternative as a leader for Pakistan at the moment. But no one knows whether his recent willingness to compromise and make peace with India, much less his promise to co-operate in preventing nuclear proliferation in the future, are a genuine strategic change of heart by Pakistan or just another tactical feint.
This is one of the most important questions the world needs to answer today. Under American pressure, the Pakistani military has isolated its most extreme leaders and put in place a chain of command in which secular officers, allegedly committed to the new Musharraf doctrines, are the next several in line after Musharraf. But if Musharraf were killed there would be chaos in Pakistan and any new general would know Musharraf was killed because of opposition to his new policies.
The future of the world's second largest Islamic nation, filled with extremist groups, with a long history of supporting the Taliban and exporting terrorism, and with we now know the world's worst history in spreading nuclear weapons technology, and most important of all with 30 to 40 of its own nuclear warheads, is truly in play.
The Americans bear a fair degree of indirect responsibility for this state of affairs. They pioneered the jihad technique for attacking the Soviets in Afghanistan, which Pakistan now uses against India in Kashmir and which has become an uncontrollable, worldwide movement.
Now the US, and Australia, are caught in a horrible bind. Musharraf, for all his appalling baggage, nonetheless is probably preferable to the chaos and risk that would follow if he were gone. I heard an American this week describe Pakistan as the scariest place on Earth. He was right about that.
-------------------------------
Within Australia, we have not generally realised just what a profound crisis the world faces in Pakistan. On the face of this week's revelations, Pakistan has engaged in far worse nuclear proliferation than North Korea has ever dreamed of. We know now that Pakistan has actually done what the US, and the rest of us, only fear what the North Koreans might do.
The Americans bear a fair degree of indirect responsibility for this state of affairs. They pioneered the jihad technique for attacking the Soviets in Afghanistan, which Pakistan now uses against India in Kashmir and which has become an uncontrollable, worldwide movement.
<span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>Pakistan's chilling sense of humour</span>
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/commo...5E25377,00.html
The Australian
YOU'VE got to love the Pakistanis, they're the world's greatest jokers.
This week, their top nuclear scientist, Dr AQ Khan, told the nation that he had sent nuclear weapons secrets to Iran, Libya and North Korea, but that he had done it on his own. He was deeply sorry for this, but he acted entirely on his own and, get this, entirely in good faith, whatever that means.
Pakistan's dictator, General Pervez Musharraf, made another broadcast confirming that Khan had acted alone and that no one from the army had helped him.
This is pure farce and a grim theatre designed to offer the flimsiest fig leaf to what is probably the single greatest act of nuclear proliferation in the world's history.
Stopping the spread of nuclear weapons has always been one of Australia's very highest foreign policy aims. It was one of the main reasons we participated in the war in Iraq.
It is worth reflecting that Australia is, for a country of our size, uniquely incapable of withstanding any nuclear strike, as virtually all of our population is clustered in six isolated coastal cities.
Six missiles and the Australian story is more or less over. That utter doom scenario has been made substantially more possible by the grotesque actions of Pakistan, which has engaged in some of the worst rogue state behaviour of any nation in our time. Musharraf, of course, immediately pardoned Khan.
I don't think there is a single person anywhere in the world who believes that Khan proliferated nuclear technology without the complete connivance of the Pakistani military. And the key man in the military for a long, long time has been Musharraf himself.
Khan's statement: "I also wish to clarify that there was never any kind of authorisation for these activities by the Government" is literally an insult to our intelligence.
If for a single second anyone took the statement seriously it would mean that the Pakistani military and Government are the most incompetent in history, manifestly unfit to be near any nuclear weapon under any circumstances.
But, of course, the Pakistani military is nothing like that incompetent. The Government knew exactly what he was doing at all times.
Within Australia, we have not generally realised just what a profound crisis the world faces in Pakistan. On the face of this week's revelations, Pakistan has engaged in far worse nuclear proliferation than North Korea has ever dreamed of. Yet the US, under both Clinton and Bush, has kept the prospect of military action against North Korea on the table to deter it from actually going into full scale nuclear weapon production and possibly exporting this to other nations. We know now that Pakistan has actually done what the US, and the rest of us, only fear what the North Koreans might do.
But this is not a historical crisis, something entirely in the past.
Musharraf has recently survived two assassination attempts. In New Delhi, where I've spent the past week, there was some serious speculation that the first assassination attempt was perhaps a fake, designed to impress on the Americans the depth of domestic opposition Musharraf faces and his indispensability. But no one thinks the second assassination attempt, in which the bomb missed Musharraf's car by seconds, was a fake and there is widespread suspicion of involvement by dissident factions of the army.
The whole future of Pakistan is truly in play. Musharraf, despite the shocking revelations of this week, is probably the least bad alternative as a leader for Pakistan at the moment. But no one knows whether his recent willingness to compromise and make peace with India, much less his promise to co-operate in preventing nuclear proliferation in the future, are a genuine strategic change of heart by Pakistan or just another tactical feint.
This is one of the most important questions the world needs to answer today. Under American pressure, the Pakistani military has isolated its most extreme leaders and put in place a chain of command in which secular officers, allegedly committed to the new Musharraf doctrines, are the next several in line after Musharraf. But if Musharraf were killed there would be chaos in Pakistan and any new general would know Musharraf was killed because of opposition to his new policies.
The future of the world's second largest Islamic nation, filled with extremist groups, with a long history of supporting the Taliban and exporting terrorism, and with we now know the world's worst history in spreading nuclear weapons technology, and most important of all with 30 to 40 of its own nuclear warheads, is truly in play.
The Americans bear a fair degree of indirect responsibility for this state of affairs. They pioneered the jihad technique for attacking the Soviets in Afghanistan, which Pakistan now uses against India in Kashmir and which has become an uncontrollable, worldwide movement.
Now the US, and Australia, are caught in a horrible bind. Musharraf, for all his appalling baggage, nonetheless is probably preferable to the chaos and risk that would follow if he were gone. I heard an American this week describe Pakistan as the scariest place on Earth. He was right about that.