Friday, May 1, 2009

Forget About Swine Flu for a Moment

It seems that the Swine Flu is not being all it was hyped to be. The spread does not seem to be exponential and the only significant effects appear to have been in Mexico. While I am keeping a wary eye on the news about Swine Flu, I cannot help but begin to wonder if this is a diversion to keep our minds off of more important matters.

A topic which scares me, and should scare anyone who has been conscious since September 11, 2001, is the issue of Pakistan. The Taliban have been doing quite well in their efforts to topple the government of Pakistan, a member of the nuclear club and the home of A.Q. Khan's laboratory. This subject has not been receiving the news coverage it deserves, but the news I have read foretells some interesting times ahead:

Petraeus: Next Two Weeks Critical to Pakistan's Survival
Essentially, the government of Pakistan could fall to the radical Islamist Taliban in the next two weeks. What then happens to the nukes? What will Pakistan's mortal enemy, India, do? Will conflagration erupt over Kashmir?

Does U.S. have 'Plan B' for Pak Nukes?
Obama supposedly has a Plan B. So, what exactly is Plan B? Supposedly the U.S. may be able to thwart the use of access codes for Pakistan's nuclear arsenal, something that Pakistan supposedly agreed to in February 2009. Story here. Hopefully this is true. Unfortunately, I don't believe it given the tensions between Pakistan and the U.S. over the past year over allegations of the U.S. violating Pakistani sovereignty.

Israel: Pakistan's Nukes Could Fall to Taliban.
Even the Secretary of State for the Second Carter Administration, Hillary Rodham Clinton, commented on the danger: ""I think we cannot underscore [enough] the seriousness of the existential threat posed to the state of Pakistan by the continuing [Islamist] advances," Clinton said, adding that an unstable and nuclear-armed Pakistan would pose a "mortal threat" to the United States and other countries. If she said that, she must believe that the U.S. does not have a handle on the Pakistani nukes. Note that this article was from the Jerusalem Post, not the MSM in the U.S.

If there is danger ahead, I think it is more likely to be from the destabilization of Pakistan than from the Swine Flu. I could be wrong, which is why I have more than N95 masks and rubber gloves in my basement.

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