The Access of Evil

With Iraq more or less out of the way, the boys from PNAC are very likely plotting their next takeover. Iran, with its vast oil wealth, seems to be a safe bet. After all, Iran is also on the infamous "axis of evil" list, along with North Korea and what is left of Saddam Hussein's former country. All of this ignores the chiefs of nuclear proliferation, which reside in Pakistan.

While Iraq was never proven to have given much, if any, support to terrorist groups like al-Qaida, Pakistan was the birthplace of the Taliban, which butchered its way into power in Afghanistan and then set the wheels of 9/11 in motion by providing a safe haven for Osama bin Laden and his terrorist crew. However, Pakistan has received substantial rewards for being our "ally in the war on terror", simply for allowing U.S. military bases on its soil, and for allegedly cracking down on fanatics and extremists.

Disarming North Korea, of course, is a pipe dream. The U.S. is wasting an awful lot of time trying to coax the DPRK to the negotiating table, even offering the Communists a non-aggression pact, to get them to slow down their nuclear ambitions. Another war on the Korean peninsula would be a wholesale bloodbath, which we are currently unable to undertake due to the massive military obligations we face in Iraq. That would be fine, except that every single reason the Bush administration offered to the American people, who finance these things, turned out to be untrue.

Pakistan, we all know, was the source of North Korea's enriched-uranium program that netted them an unknown quantity of nuclear bombs. Pakistan is also the source of Iran's deadly technology, although the Russians are certainly more involved than anyone wants to let on. And today it was revealed, with little or no surprise attached, that Pakistan has been giving nuclear centrifuge technology to Libya.

Libyan leader Moammar Ghadafi, longtime financier of terrorism, has suddenly spun on his heels and opened his country to WMD inspectors. Intelligence estimates (credible ones this time) dictate that Libya has exerted considerable effort toward its chemical, biological and nuclear programs. Given his horrific history, there is little doubt that Ghadafi would be more than willing to use such weapons. Once upon a time, however, Libya was a friend to the United States, because of the oil that is trapped under its share of the Earth's surface. Libya's lust for oil money has shaped its worldview, apparently, just as our lust for oil shapes ours.

The Bush administration has declared it will keep in force Ronald Reagan's 1986 order of sanctions against Libya, the same logic employed by frustrated parents who have a child with a badly influential friend down the street. Pakistan has been that friend to those who desire to kill Americans, time and time again; the technology that put Libya on the main stage today was acquired within the last two years. The problem is that shortly after 9/11, Bush hammered out an agreement with Musharraf, that Pakistan would get out of the business of nuclear proliferation.

So Iraq, which gave no substantive support to terrorists, was invaded and occupied at the U.S. taxpayer's expense, with thousands of Iraqis and hundreds of Americans killed in the process. Pakistan, which had already provided nuclear technology to the other members of Bush's axis, although not the one we took down, is still considered our good friend. And soon Libya could be, too:

"As Libya takes tangible steps to address those concerns," Bush said in a statement to Congress, "the United States will in turn take reciprocal tangible steps to recognize Libya's progress." Nothing about Pakistan, which put Ghadafi (among others) in touch with his atomic inner child. No address of how hypocritical that makes us look, given the horns-down approach we took with that brutal dictator in Iraq. No statement qualifying the Bush Doctrine, which states erroneously that any country giving aid to terrorists will find itself on a red, white and blue chopping block.

What we get is lip service from White House officials saying that Libya's nuclear centrifuges, which absolutely came from Pakistan, probably got snuck through without Musharraf's knowledge or blessing. Such statements of unqualified idiocy are further proof that this administration does not know what it is doing - or worse, refuses to do the right thing - where the war on terror is concerned.

While there are many solid reasons to dump this parody of a president, none carry quite the consequences of this one. Americans cannot afford to wait for material proof of Bush's greed and stupidity to appear in the form of a mushroom cloud.