"U.S. experts: Pakistan on course to become Islamist state" ... LINK

[Blackhatjack]

McClatchy piece clearly points out that Pakistan is the ticking timebomb.

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/254/story/66368.html

U.S. experts: Pakistan on course to become Islamist state

"WASHINGTON — A growing number of U.S. intelligence, defense and diplomatic officials have concluded that there's little hope of preventing nuclear-armed Pakistan from disintegrating into fiefdoms controlled by Islamist warlords and terrorists, posing a greater threat to the U.S. than Afghanistan's terrorist haven did before 9/11.

"It's a disaster in the making on the scale of the Iranian revolution," said a U.S. intelligence official with long experience in Pakistan who requested anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak publicly.

Pakistan's fragmentation into warlord-run fiefdoms that host al Qaida and other terrorist groups would have grave implications for the security of its nuclear arsenal; for the U.S.-led effort to pacify Afghanistan; and for the security of India, the nearby oil-rich Persian Gulf and Central Asia, the U.S. and its allies.

"Pakistan has 173 million people and 100 nuclear weapons, an army which is bigger than the American army, and the headquarters of al Qaida sitting in two-thirds of the country which the government does not control," said David Kilcullen, a retired Australian army officer, a former State Department adviser and a counterinsurgency consultant to the Obama administration."

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[LakeSamish706]

1. I guess VP Biden was right on in his worries about Pakistan many months ago....

This is very alarming indeed! Here we are messing around in Iraq and Afghanistan when Pakistan could be the mushroom cloud to really be worried about.

[Deja Q]

2. A nasty situation indeed.

How will the world's countries respond; especially those closest to Pakistan, which are going to be directly affected?

[Blackhatjack]

3. India won't quietly watch Pakistan's NUCLEAR Weapons fall into the hands of extremists...

Miscommunication, human error, and any number of other exigencies could trigger an accidental launch of nuclear weapons between Pakistan and India, even between the present governments.

Watch Pakistan's Govt fall into the hands of Islamic Extremists and you now have a situation in which India's neighbor may be deemed irrational and therefore be incapable of being deterred from using those nuclear weapons by India's nuclear arsenal.

And their history as enemies carries with it dangerous baggage.

I hope Obama has his best people working on this one. Because once the first nuke is launched there won't be any going back.