Pakistan could be our worst nightmare. The unrest that has developed among the citizens of Pakistan should be very unsettling to all Americans. We have extremists all over the country of Pakistan and they are just waiting for a major event to cause more chaos. Pakistan’s president, Pervez Musharraf, has been a long time supporter of the United States.

We now have a situation where President Musharraf is being spotlighted by his own country as being a supporter of the United States. What is wrong with that? Rising criticism amongst the Pakistanis threatens the balance of peace in this area of the world. And it also threatens the peace of the world. The United States is more and more being viewed as an occupier in Iraq rather than a defender of democracy. President Bush has no clear strategy on how to deal with the situation. What happens if there is a coup in Pakistan? There already has been a military coup in 1999 which brought the standing president Musharraf to power. What are the implications if radical islamists take power in Pakistan? Take a look at this quote from the Federation of American Scientists (FAS). “Pakistani authorities claim that their nuclear weapons are not assembled. They maintain that the fissile cores are stored separately from the non-nuclear explosives packages, and that the warheads are stored separately from the delivery systems. In a 2001 report, the Defense Department contends that “Islamabad’s nuclear weapons are probably stored in component form” and that “Pakistan probably could assemble the weapons fairly quickly.” However, no one has been able to ascertain the validity of Pakistan’s assurances about their nuclear weapons security.”

We now have a situation where our worst nightmare as Americans could come true. What happens if the unrest escalates into chaos? What happens if radicals gain access to these materials? America should be more outwardly concerned over this situation. The present crisis in Pakistan could be the conduit by which radicals obtain nuclear materials.