ShareThisHold your breath and pray that down the road you will have one to hold.
At the risk of being branded an alarmist, one of the few remaining epithets I have avoided, it should be evident that the United States, the world actually, can't afford to allow the super extremist Taliban access to nuclear devices. That is, to be trite, a no-brainer, otherwise we are all confronted with a scalping that would make the September 11, 2001 attack on America little more than a bad hair day.
Is that a probability or even a possibility?
Of course it is, if that radical brand of Islam goes unchecked in Pakistan and the poison is spread beyond the Swat Valley, which, without strong and sustained measures by the Pakistani government, is highly likely. Then there would be only one viable step to prevent the potential for unimaginable disaster -- full-out intervention by neighboring India and the Western powers.
Just consider that it was this brutal, distorted brand of religion dispensed without mercy with an 11th century viciousness that protected and sustained Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda thugs in neighboring Afghanistan. For that matter, he still may be hiding along the wild border of both countries. Now tens of thousands of Pakistanis are fleeing Swat as the Taliban fighters mine the streets and public buildings in anticipation of a government onslaught.
The Obama administration just over 100 days old must face what could be a defining foreign policy moment for it -- how to treat the threat that a nuclear power could fall to forces who believe there is nothing out of bounds when it comes to dealing with infidels. Touching off an atomic holocaust, in fact, would be completely justifiable under their twisted concept of martyrdom and the promise of Paradise. We aren't talking about plastic explosives or dynamite in a truck or around a waist, folks, but the possibility of a suitcase device capable of destroying much of this city from Capitol Hill to the White House.
It is everyone's worst nightmare that pushes the safeguarding of Pakistan's nuclear arsenal to the forefront of foreign policy consideration. The most dangerous country in the world can't be ignored and most surely isn't despite all those public assurances from special ambassador Richard Holbrooke that the devices are in no danger of getting into the wrong hands and that the Pakistan government is not a failed one. Right. I'm more inclined to agree with the congressman who said Pakistan's "pants are on fire" and it may fall to us to put out the blaze.
So here we go again, faced with the distinct possibility of having to step in more dramatically than most of us would like. But this time there actually are weapons of mass destruction and a clear justification for intervention if they can't be protected. There is certainly a danger that a strong on-the-ground military support of the ruling government by the United States might arouse strong opposition from the Pakistani masses. But what choice is there?
The president's conversations in Washington with Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari and with Afghan President Hamid Karzari stressed the urgent need for both to work together against the resurgent Taliban. The obvious implication, even if not stated, was the danger of not being able to stop the radicals from turning the Earth into a fireball, which is what they would do if left to their own devices. A first important step is to improve the popularity of both governments at home where they are considered ineffectual and corrupt.
One can only hope that whatever the historic differences Pakistan and Afghanistan have had, their leaders now can work closely to overcome this crisis. The president and Holbrooke in the meantime have made it clear that the United States "unambiguously" supports Zardari and his elected government. That statement alone sends a message that implies far more than just diplomatic backing. There is no other alternative, in fact.
Once again: hold your breath.
(E-mail Dan K. Thomasson, former editor of the Scripps Howard News Service, at thomassondan(at)aol.com.)
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