Pakistan Now Greatest Threat To U. S. Interests

No Room For Obama’s Rodney King-Like Foreign Policy

Anthony Cordesman, senior scholar at the Center for Strategic and International Studies says the world is not shaped by democratic values, international law, good intentions, globalism, rational bargains, or the search for dialogue. His comment reflects the dictum that countries do not have friends but countries have interests. While this may not comport with the Barack Obama “Rodney King” idea of foreign policy it is none the less a fact.

Cordesman argues that U. S. ally Pakistan’s Pervez Musharraf’s political demise poses the greatest threat to the U. S. interest now. He cites Musharraf’s opponent’s link with and support from the radical Islamic Wahhabi sect in Saudi Arabia. He describes roadside markets selling weapons including rocket propelled grenades.

His premise is dire consequences in Afganistan. He talks about black turbaned Taliban extremist openly prowling the countryside on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border fomenting mischief and mayhem.

Pakistan’s government has descended into dysfunction with rampant fuel and food shortages leaving the way open for another military coup as in 1999 that installed Musharraf. Overall a dangerous situation for one of the world’s eight nuclear armed nations.