Author:
Publication: The Telegraph
Date: December 7, 2004
URL: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/12/06/uhonour.xml&sSheet=/portal/2004/12/06/ixportaltop.html
If it had been even a primitive
nuclear weapon that hit the World Trade Center three years ago, hundreds
of thousands of people would have died instead of fewer than 3,000, and
the free society we enjoy almost certainly would have been a casualty as
well. In the shock of that moment, the administration probably would have
created a national network of detention camps for suspected terrorists,
and military retaliation might have included the launch of nuclear missiles
with the capability of killing millions. All of which is exactly why it
was so terrifying to read in an investigative article in the Los Angeles
Times on Saturday that our "allies" in Pakistan, who have done so much
to spread nuclear weapons technology in recent years, are still capable
of doing so.
"Senior investigators said they
were especially worried that dangerous elements of the illicit network
of manufacturers and suppliers would remain undetected and capable of resuming
operations once international pressures eased," The Times reported. The
article dissected the inability of investigators worldwide to fully penetrate
the illicit nuclear weapons bazaar, which was run until last year by Pakistan's
top nuclear scientist, Abdul Qadeer Khan.
Khan is currently under the protection
of Pakistan's military dictator, President Pervez Musharraf, the same man
who pardoned Khan and refuses to allow foreign investigators to speak with
him. Yet it was Musharraf whom President Bush spent the weekend praising
and accommodating.
As The Times article made clear,
what "officials call the world's worst case of nuclear proliferation" -
in which sophisticated nuclear technology was supplied to Libya, Iran and
other rogue nations - never would have been possible without the support
of the Pakistani military. This is the same complex and powerful organization
that made Pakistan a dictatorship in a 1999 coup by Musharraf. Yet within
two years of this coup, Bush dropped U.S. sanctions against Pakistan, showing
clear disregard for international nonproliferation restraints. The rationale
then and now was Pakistan's alleged support in the "war on terrorism" after
9/11.
And despite the exposure of the
Khan black market ring, nothing has changed: In a White House meeting Friday,
Bush honored Musharraf - who since seizing power has purged his country's
Supreme Court and rewritten its constitution - as a "courageous leader."
The administration again hastened
to explain that Musharraf was vital in the three- year effort to capture
Osama bin Laden "dead or alive," as Bush frequently has proclaimed. How
embarrassing then, when hours later Musharraf conceded in a Washington
Post interview that Bin Laden's trail had grown completely cold but that
the arch-terrorist is still very much alive and functioning.
Musharraf complained that attempts
to pin down Bin Laden and his Al Qaeda operatives had been seriously undermined
by what he politely called "voids" in U.S. troop commitments to the area,
which are equal to a mere 15% of the U.S. forces in Iraq. The U.S. strategy
instead has been to rely on Pakistan's military to trap Bin Laden, a dependence
that Bush administration officials have cited while refusing to pressure
for access to Khan.
Musharraf complains that calls for
international access to Khan show "a lack of trust" in Pakistan, but his
real problem is the scientist's enormous popularity as the "father" of
Pakistan's nuclear bomb program. Khan "has been a hero for the masses,"
said the general who has survived several assassination attempts and faces
the possibility of a revolt if he tilts too far toward the West.
Meanwhile, Bush is so eager to cater
to Musharraf that he is even championing the dictator as key to the creation
of a democratic Palestinian state "that is truly free. One that's got an
independent judiciary; one that's got a civil society; one that's got the
capacity to fight off the terrorists; one that allows for dissent; one
in which people can vote. And President Musharraf can play a big role in
helping achieve that objective."
What balderdash. None of those conditions
of a free society exist in Pakistan, nor are they likely any time soon
in U.S.-occupied Iraq.
Yet while we chase the chimera of
democratizing the Islamic world through the use of force, the true cost
of this crusade can be measured by our indifference to our original justification
of the Iraq invasion: stopping the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.
And there's no margin for error
here. Next time the terrorists could take Manhattan and a whole lot more.
