What will happen next in Pakistan?
The nuclear state, which is battling encroaching al Qaeda fighters at its borders, has descended into chaos after President Pervez Musharraf declared a state of emergency and suspended Pakistan’s constitution. Taliban fighters and al Qaeda terrorists who had sought refuge in the mountainous border region between Pakistan and Afghanistan are moving into more populated regions of Pakistan and they appear emboldened by the chaos erupting from Musharraf’s crackdown.
“Pakistani analysts are increasingly questioning General Musharraf’s contention that emergency rule was needed to help him fight terrorism,” reports David Rohde in a New York Times analysis Tuesday. Across the country, policemen and intelligence agents have been diverted from hunting terrorists to arresting lawyers, who apparently are being assessed as the greater threat to the general’s rule.”
[snip]
ABC News correspondent Jim Sciutto reports that officials believe there is a “very real” possibility that those weapons could fall into the wrong hands.
“The nightmare scenario for US officials,” Sciutto says, “that a government collapse could put Pakistan’s nuclear weapons in the hands of terrorists.”
Unless, of course, you want to start another war, in which case all you need is some asshat to kick it off.
