January 28, 2004
WHERE THE WAR ENDS:
US draws a line on Pakistan's nuclear program (Syed Saleem Shahzad, 1/29/04, Asia Times)
Parallel to this Pakistani investigation, though, the US has launched its own independent probe into Pakistan's links to the nuclear programs of Iran, Libya and North Korea, and, depending on the results, according to insiders in the Pakistani administration, Washington could lean on Islamabad to completely abandon its program. Such action would conform with the US's broader agenda to defuse tension on the sub-continent. Already the US has forced India and Pakistan, not quite kicking and screaming, to the peace negotiating table, and for this peace process to last, Pakistan, a perennial meddler in Afghanistan and Kashmir in particular, would need to be tamed.The US hand has been strengthened by the weekend announcement by President General Pervez Musharraf, who for the first time admitted that "some individual or individuals" may have been involved in proliferating Pakistan's nuclear technology.
America is notoriously awful at seeing wars through to their logical conclusions--turning the Civil War, WWI, WWII, Korea, Vietnam, and Iraq I from military victories into geo-strategic losses--and if the war on terror concludes without our depriving Pakistan and North Korea of their nuclear weapons, and/or without our rooting al Qaeda out of Western Pakistan, it too will be a defeat. Posted by Orrin Judd at January 28, 2004 9:00 AM
Great point oj, too bad 40% of the American popualtion does not give a damn about winning the war. What they really want is for the government to give them jobs and free healthcare. If a nuke goes off in DC or Atlanta, oh well.
Posted by: BJW at January 28, 2004 10:30 AMWe must be a great nation, to have suffered six geostrategic losses in a row and come out on top.
Posted by: Harry Eagar at January 28, 2004 5:17 PMHarry --
I imagine what he means is that others, not us, ended up paying the price for these "defeats".
Posted by: MG at January 28, 2004 6:34 PM