According to this article from Le Monde Diplomatique, instability in the Middle East, and the failure to meet the U.S. goals in the War on Terror, are responsible for Pakistan’s current predicament, and the potential, were it to collapse, for nuclear weapons get to into the hands of a Pakistan-Taliban alliance.
Pakistan is the latest country affected by spreading instability because of the war on terrorism after 9/11. More than four years after the capture of Baghdad, the geopolitical outlook is bleak. The military impasse has been followed by diplomatic disasters. The terrorist threat is undiminished despite the declared objective of the United States. None of the conflicts – Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, Somalia – has been resolved. There are 165,000 US troops in Iraq but prospects remain uncertain. Daily life for the civilian population is still hell. And there is trouble in the north, on the border between Iraqi Kurdistan and Turkey, with the threat of a clash between two US allies.
US intervention has rescued its worst enemy, Iran, from two dangerous rivals: the Ba’athist regime in Iraq and the Taliban in Afghanistan. (A country can seldom have done its principal enemy such favours.) Iran is now free to concentrate on its nuclear programme. The US and Israel threaten to bomb its nuclear installations, adding to the chaos in the region and driving oil prices up.
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Robin Koerner is a British-born citizen of the USA, who currently serves as Academic Dean of the John Locke Institute. He holds graduate degrees in both Physics and the Philosophy of Science from the University of Cambridge (U.K.). He is also the founder of WatchingAmerica.com, an organization of over 100 volunteers that translates and posts in English views about the USA from all over the world.
Robin may be best known for having coined the term “Blue Republican” to refer to liberals and independents who joined the GOP to support Ron Paul’s bid for the presidency in 2012 (and, in so doing, launching the largest coalition that existed for that candidate).
Robin’s current work as a trainer and a consultant, and his book If You Can Keep It , focus on overcoming distrust and bridging ideological division to improve politics and lives. His current project, Humilitarian, promotes humility and civility as a basis for improved political discourse and outcomes.