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That's an excellent point.

However, I tend to believe that the Pakistani army will not permit the Islamic fundamentalists to take control of the government and the nukes under any circumstances. That may be wishful thinking on my part, but I think it's correct.

Much like the Turkish army command has kept that country on the path of secular democracy by stepping in with periodic coups (but relinquishing power to civilian authorities in a fairly short time), the Pakistani army has been the guarantor of constitutional authority in that troubled nation.

I don't think that fantasies of an American/Indian operation to "de-nuke" Pakistan are realistic. The costs of failure would be too high, and the costs of success would be very high, also.

It would be the last resort if the extremists defied my expectations and did gain control of the government, but it's in the interest of the US, India, and Pakistan, for all three to cooperate in eliminating the extremist threat within Pakistan to prevent that from happening.

There is no Democrat out there with the global vision to direct such an effort, nor would there be any political among them to do so.

However, I tend to believe that the Pakistani army will not permit the Islamic fundamentalists to take control of the government and the nukes under any circumstances.

Hmmm. I wish I could agree with you there. There have been recent reports of Mushy trying to purge members of his officer's corps who are sympathetic to bin Laden and Mullah Omar. Also, I think it is reasonable to believe that members of the military have been helping to coordinated these assassination attempts.

The thing is, immediately after a coup/assassination would be a very vulnerable time. Things would be in a state of flux. If bin Laden is the one engineering these assassination attempts, it stands to reason he has some sort of plan to implement if he pulls it off. He could either go for complete control of the country using a portion of the military as a proxy or just to get his hands on one nuke warhead. He doesn't need the entire arsenal- just the one. If they are not all in one place (and I doubt they are) it would be easier for him to focus on and corrupt/enlist just one military commander to help him gain a nuke in the confusion following a coup.