Unpleasant Reminders from Pakistan ...

Ceding the Fall of Pakistan:

"The Center for Security Policy's Salim Mansur raised the uncomfortable issue of a potential nuclear alliance between Iran and Pakistan. Few in the public governmental forum care to delve into the possible scenario of a fallen Pakistan suddenly a nuclear and military ally of the Islamic Republic of Iran. But such a scenario is very real, and one which few care to delve into for long. It’s not a pleasant exercise.

· Pakistan has nuclear weapons.
· It is also the current home to al-Qaeda and the Taliban, the epicenter of the global jihadiyun movement.
· The Taliban has recently taken to seeking its enemies by reportedly deploying suicide bomber teams to distant shores, including Germany, Canada, the United States and Great Britain.
· Al-Qaeda is considered to have surpassed its pre-9/11 capabilities since migrating to its sanctuaries in Pakistan in 2001-2002.
· The Taliban-al-Qaeda alliance fields an armed fighter force of over 200,000 men on Pakistani soil.
· The alliance has been steadily gaining territory ceded to them by Pervez Musharraf, as he has been incapable of defeating or even stemming the rising tide of Islamists inching ever closer to Islamabad.
· As Mansur states bluntly, Musharraf “has run the country for over seven years and his welcome has run out” among the general population, not just the Taliban-al-Qaeda alliance.
· And, again, Pakistan has nuclear weapons. "