[angkor]

The real objective is effective AQ control of Pakistani nuclear weapons.

A) There's plenty of plausible speculation that AQ already has nukes, much on that topic has been linked and posted in this thread.

B) Surely AQ doesn't believe it could ever get successful access to Pakistan's strategic nukes. India, Israel, the US, and probably others would simply not let that happen under any conceivable circumstances.

C) AQ does need a friendly operational base. Pakistan already serves in that fashion but AQ is probably cowed by the number and intensity of foreign intelligence operatives there. They'd like a more sympathetic government to throttle the intelligence ops against them.

[JustPiper]

But will our security truly be a way of life or a fad for the government?

[Sean Osborne Lomax]

"A) There's plenty of plausible speculation that AQ already has nukes, much on that topic has been linked and posted in this thread"

True. The most difinitive has been done by Yossef Bodansky, but those are 5 to 20 suitcase weapons of which if they managed to get 5 operational would not be enough to break the spine of the US.

"B) Surely AQ doesn't believe it could ever get successful access to Pakistan's strategic nukes. India, Israel, the US, and probably others would simply not let that happen under any conceivable circumstances."

Surely it does. The Pakistani military and intelligence service is rife with those whose version of Islam is quite radical.

The "why" of why these weapons are such a prized target: they are currently operational, very well maintained and are considerably larger than suitcases. The largest of which is about 5500kg by conservative estimates.

The chance of a US/Israeli/Indian raid to secure all weapons or their fissile material is considered to be extremely difficult to near impossible, depending on which expert on the subject one references.

"AQ is probably cowed by the number and intensity of foreign intelligence operatives there"

Don't you believe this nonsense for even one nanosecond. Cowed? They have dozens of operatives if not hundreds operating on a daily basis here in the USA (belly of the eagle) which does not hinder them one iota. When they are ready they will act. That is a virtual guarrantee.