Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Forget Iraq. Forget Iran. The Real Concern Is Pakistan

Just yesterday we heard, once again, that the Taliban relishes the idea of obtaining Pakistan's nuclear arsenal . . . and using it against the United States:

"By God's will, the Americans will not seize the Muslims' nuclear weapons and we pray that the Muslims will have these weapons and they will be used
against the Americans," he said in an exclusive interview.


While I'm reticent to believe the "an enemy of my enemy is my friend" scenario, this does seem to make the concern all the more immediate:

Qari Zainuddin, the sole leader to emerge from Mehsud's clan to resist him openly, was shot as he slept at his headquarters Tuesday morning in Dera Ismail Khan, a town on the edge of the extremist-controlled South Waziristan region, close to the Afghan border. He was killed by one of his own guards, who almost certainly was working for Mehsud, according to Baaz Muhammad, a follower of Zainuddin who was with him when he was shot and also was wounded in the attack.


Those Pakistanis who were willing to stand up to the Taliban have just been shown they are not safe anywhere.

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