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Obama's nuclear fear over Pakistan
Paul Thompson05.05.09
Barack Obama is to seek a guarantee from the Pakistani government that the country's nuclear arsenal will be kept safe from Taliban insurgents.
The US President will tomorrow urge President Asif Ali Zadari to face down the extremists amid growing international fears about the instability of the country.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said the volatile situation in Pakistan was now of the "highest priority" to the Obama administration.
Taliban extremists are camped less than 60 miles from Pakistan's capital Islamabad after the government allowed Islamic sharia law to be imposed in the Swat Valley.
They have since pushed further and Pakistani forces have launched counter-attacks.
US security advisers fear that extremist sympathisers in Pakistan's military or intelligence services could tip off militants to the movement of nuclear weapons from their guarded locations.
Reader views (3)
Pakistan should have no Nuclear weapons because if they fall into the wrong hands we will be in trouble.
- Stan White, leeds
Never miss an opportunity to blame it on the Yanks, eh Neil? The quite clever Pakistani scientists who developed their own nuclear weapons program would probably be a tad miffed at having their own efforts dismissed so cavalierly. Probably accuse you of racism or something similar.
The Israelis? I wouldn't care to say whether they did or did not have nukes. Popular belief is that they do have them - never been definitively proven though. But even the possibility gives the nations surrounding them pause in their unending desire to wipe Israel off the map.
Can't see where you get "proxy war" for either of them though - that was a term referring to the US conflict with the Eastern Block superpowers. You know - in the past. Along with your thinking. The Pakistanis developed their weapons in parallel with the Indians (that other great enemy of the USA - not! You're not calling THAT a proxy war are you?), and whether you like 'em or not, the Israelis were fighting merely to exist amidst a sea of enemies (at least half of which have never been serious enemies of the USA). Proxy war?
Never let reality get in the way of an opportunity for unreasoning hatred though, eh? After all, there's nothing like a session of vitriolic abuse to clear the mind, is there Neil!
- Rogan, Irving
Pakistan is yet another country that has been destabilised by America's proxy wars. Two of the most dangerous nations in the world - Pakistan and Israel - both have the bomb thanks to the US. Perhaps they'll annihilate each other?
- Neil, London, London UK
