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| India-Pakistan |
| Keep an eye on unsteady Pakistan |
| 2006-05-07 |
| While much of the world is focusing on the threat posed by Iran's nuclear program, the United States should be equally concerned with the fragility of Pakistan, a Muslim nation that already has nuclear weapons. Pakistan, where Osama bin Laden is hiding and the Taliban is regrouping and regaining strength, is among the world's 10 most vulnerable states - just ahead of its neighbor, Afghanistan - according to a new study. Both are only a few steps away from becoming failed states. The study - compiled by Foreign Policy, an influential American quarterly, and the Fund for Peace, a U.S.-based think tank - is the second annual Failed States Index, which tracks countries on the edge of collapse. Last year, Pakistan ranked 34th. Today, it has jumped to 9th, just below Haiti. Worse yet, Pakistan is the only nation on the top-10 list to have nuclear weapons. If it became a failed state, the Bomb would likely come under the control of radical Islamists. Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, once considered to be one of Washington's top allies in the war on terror, sits on a political razor's edge. He is pressed on one side by Washington's growing impatience with his failure to track down bin Laden and rein in the resurgent Taliban. Within Pakistan, Musharraf is under pressure from Islamist parties critical of his cooperation with Washington, but he is also feeling the heat from secular parties fed up with his unwillingness to hand over control of the military to civilians after next year's scheduled elections. Secular party leaders also are frustrated with Musharraf's failure to get much tougher with the rising militant Islamist parties challenging his rule. And in his own government, Musharraf's authority is undermined by a military and intelligence establishment that sympathizes with radical Islamists' goals and seems reluctant to crack down on the Taliban or the al-Qaida remnants in western Pakistan. Musharraf needs U.S. support to stay in power, but if Washington pushes him too hard, Islamist radicals may well rise up and topple him. To compound the growing instability of the region, the Afghan warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a former premier once backed by the United States, has formally pledged his fealty to al-Qaida. The Bush administration must devote more time and care to defusing the volatile brew that could explode in Pakistan and Afghanistan. |
| Posted by:ryuge |
| #1 How about "Keep Pakistan in your sights"? |
| Posted by: gromgoru 2006-05-07 09:52 |