When Unstable Markets Meet Unstable Nukes

Someone on the staff at Newsweek has been trying to let people know about Pakistan. The linked article is the most recent in a string of stories that claim that Pakistan is the most dangerous country in the Middle East, and rightly so. It's even worse now that the global economy has done this...



I'm not even really going to try to go into great detail about their problems, I'm just going to try to list them. The Taliban is gathering increasing strength in the northern hills. India just signed a nuclear trade deal with us, which puts two enemies on the United States' ally table. Pakistan's relations with us are becoming more and more strained. The last president was kicked out and the newest one is the widower of the assassinated lead candidate. The United States is continually invading their territory to hunt down terrorists. Now there is no money. Power outages are wide spread. Why do they scare me more than Iran, Syria, North Korea (not Middle Eastern but scary anyway), Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, the other Stans? Because they have nukes. Not in the way that Iran almost might have the technology to start thinking about nukes. They have nukes, in the current sense. They have a new government that is on very thin ice. Not in the way that Kim Jong Il is crazy and we don't know how to deal with him. There is no way of knowing if their government will exist in a year, in the junta sense. I am far more frightened of practiced terrorists getting their hands on nuclear weaponry in Pakistan than I am with any other situation in the Middle East. I'll bet India and Afghanistan and Saudia Arabia are too.