[Vision2020] Pakistan Is Worse Than Iraq

[Ted Moffett]

All:

Please excuse the other incomplete vision2020 post I accidentally sent on 
the Pakistan and terrorism issue.  This is the post I meant to send.

The argument being presented by the Bush administration to justify war 
against Iraq is kept simple, partly for the utility of the media sound bites 
needed to manipulate public sentiment.  We are told Iraq sponsors terrorism, 
is secretly harboring or developing weapons of mass destruction, and 
threatens other nations in the middle east, all while flaunting United 
Nation resolutions to disarm.  OK.

Let's look at a current U.S. alley, Pakistan, a dictatorship with Musharraf 
as despot that without doubt harbors supporters of Osama Bin Laden's Islamic 
fundamentalist terrorism, and absolutely has weapons of mass destruction, 
nuclear weapons that can be delivered with missiles.  Pakistan not only 
threatens India with nuclear weapons, but also engages in brutal acts of 
terrorism against civilians in India, the worlds largest Democracy.

It appears all the reasons to bomb Iraq also apply even more to Pakistan.

Of course Musharraf claims Pakistan's government and military do not support 
these terrorist attacks in India, or Osama Bin Laden, and have rational 
control over their nuclear weapons.  But any student of Pakistan's politics 
can tell you there are elements within Musharraf's government and military 
who sympathize with Islamic fundamentalist terrorism.  Pakistan supported 
the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Nuclear weapons on missiles that can be launched in a nation rife with 
terrorism in its borders?
Do we see demands from Bush for Pakistan to disarm?

Why are we not demanding that Musharraf and Pakistan disarm their weapons of 
mass destruction, eliminate the supporters of Osama Bin Laden within their 
borders, and stop all terrorism against India, or we will bomb them?

Of course there are numerous and complicated geo-political-economic 
strategic reasons that would require detailed exploration to answer that 
question fully.  But I think it is clear the propaganda we are being fed by 
the Bush administration does not offer the public in America the actual 
strategic thinking that is really behind this pending war in Iraq.

If we actually debate the pending war in Iraq as though the reasons we are 
engaging in this war are the ones dominating the media and the propaganda of 
the Bush administration, we are not looking at the reality of what's behind 
this war.

Ted




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