Atomic Taliban

"At his press conference Wednesday evening, President Obama endorsed Pakistan's official position that it has secure control over its nuclear-weapons arsenal. Mr. Obama said he was 'gravely concerned' about the situation there, but 'confident that the nuclear arsenal will remain out of militant hands.' His words are not reassuring in light of the Taliban's military and political gains throughout Pakistan. Our security, and that of friends and allies worldwide, depends critically on preventing more adversaries, especially ones with otherwordly ideologies, from acquiring nuclear weapons. Unless there is swift, decisive action against the Islamic radicals there, Pakistan faces two very worrisome scenarios. ... Often known as Pakistan's 'steel skeleton' for holding the country together after sucesssive corrupt or incompetent civilian governments, the military itself is now gravely threatened from within by rising pro-Taliban sentiment. In these circumstances--especially if, as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton testified recently, the nuclear arsenal has been dispersed around the country--there is a tangible risk that several weapons could slip out of military control. ... Not only could this second scenario [a coup] give international terrorists even greater access to Pakistan's nuclear capabilities, the risk of nuclear confrontation with India would also increase dramatically. ... Contrary to Western 'international nannies,' the primary conflict motivators in [Pakistan and Afghanistan] are ethnic and tribal loyalties, religious fantacism and simple opportunism. It is not a case of the 'have nots' rising against the 'haves,' but of True Believers on a divine mission. ... We didn't get here overnight. We are reaping the consequences of failed nonproliferation polcies. ... Musharraf's performance against the terrorists left much to be desired, and he was no democrat. But removing him was unpleasantly reminiscent of the 1963 coup agiant South Vietnam's Diem regime which ushered in a succession of ever-weaker, revolving-door governments, thus significantly facilitating the ultimate Communist takeover", my emphasis, John Bolton (JB) at the WSJ, 2 May 2009.

Kamikaze means "divine wind". Interesting. Was JB alluding to Eric Hoffer's The True Believer, 1951? Eeerie. I thought it. Removing Musharraf reminded me of coup which removed Diem too! Blasphemy! Questioning "His" words.