The Shot That Will Be Heard Around The World - Al Qaeda Just One Quick Bullet Away From Owning Pakistan

An al-Qaeda-guided if not al-Qaeda-controlled Pakistani nuclear power forming an international Islamist military alliance would significantly alter the scope of the conflict already at hand.
The question remains: How likely is this?

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Ceding the Fall of Pakistan

By Steve Schippert

FrontPageMagazine.com July 5, 2007

The nature of the conflict before us is about to change significantly in both nature and, potentially, scope.

The question is not a matter of if, but when.

For absent in any analysis of the situation in Pakistan is any discussion whatsoever of how President Pervez Musharraf can or will defeat (or enable the defeat of) al-Qaeda and the Taliban. And Musharraf is the only known trustworthy custodian of Pakistan's nuclear weapons arsenal.
Beyond Musharraf lie only question marks and uncertainties at best, which is a dire Western predicament for a nuclear power cohabitating with popular and powerful al-Qaeda and Taliban movements on its soil. And increasingly, the question regarding Musharraf's rule as the leader of Pakistan is most often discussed in terms of how long he can survive, not whether or not he can retain reliable control of both Pakistan's government and its military.

The Center for Security Policy's Salim Mansur raised the uncomfortable issue of a potential nuclear alliance between Iran and Pakistan.

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Few if any analyses concern themselves with calculating any likelihood of a Pakistani defeat of the Taliban or al-Qaeda. Likewise, few if any discuss an American-led defeat of the same within Pakistani borders.

But each adds its calculus for the life expectancy of the Musharraf regime.

There is little alternative but to conclude that we are ceding the collapse of Pakistan and the rise of Islamists aligned with the Taliban-al-Qaeda alliance. The question appears no longer if, but rather when.

Incredible read:

http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Printable.asp?ID=28946