Posted on 11/23/2007 7:15:13 AM PST by sukhoi-30mki
Can Pakistan's Military Be Trusted?
Friday, Nov. 09, 2007
By ROBERT BAER
The mess in Pakistan should make us miss the Cold War — really miss it.
There was a time when Washington could call up Islamabad and order a jihad on the Red Army occupying Afghanistan — and Islamabad would salute. Islamabad was our loyal ally in the Cold War. Granted, no one in Washington was happy when Pakistan started developing a nuclear bomb in the '70s. Or when it finally tested one in May 1998. But still, we slept nights knowing that Pakistan's pro-American, Western-trained generals, our generals, had their fingers on the trigger.
Now, things aren't so clear. With the anarchy along the border with Afghanistan — Pashtunistan, as the Pakistanis call it — promising to spread, with Benazir Bhutto promising mass demonstrations, the courts closed and Musharraf promising the army will put down civil disobedience at the same time as he promises democratic elections in February, it's hard to tell where the generals stand.
With more than a little irony, even the Iranians are worried. "Pakistan is not a country, Pakistan is an army," an Iranian close to the regime in Tehran recently complained to me. "And it's an army you can't count on."
My Iranian friend tried to make the case that we would be better off with Tehran having a nuclear bomb than Pakistan's generals. Small comfort to Washington and Tel Aviv, but he was on to something.
The truth is Pakistan is an artificial country, its borders drawn by British colonial administrators in a fit of expediency, its people hopelessly divided along ethnic lines. None of it mattered, democracy or not, as long as the generals stood shoulder to shoulder and held off disintegration and chaos — kept the nukes safe,
(Excerpt) Read more at time.com ...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1927147/posts
Are you still confident in the top military to control those nukes? As Kahn demonstrated, it’s a mighty temptation to sell those little beauties.
Better than Time Magazine - Yes.
Pakistan ping
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Their senior officers are all mainly from the same (elite) background & essentially share a common vision of Pakistan.Despite what the media has said,the majority of those junior officers & enlisted personnel are behind their seniors.This will only be at risk when tensions flare up in the NWFP or Baluchistan.
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