I've been thinking this since shortly after 9/11. Let's look at the record:
*** BCCI - the most prolific money-laundering and criminal enterprise of the 20th century - was created specifically and solely to finance "the Islamic bomb", according to repeated statements by its founders.
*** Pakistan even today harbors al Qaeda, the Taliban, Kashmir Jihadists, Saudi-financed schools of Jihadist hatred (madrassas). Its people currently share a savage bloodlust against Americans, Brits, Hindus, Christians, French engineers, Jews, Western journalists, etc.
*** Pakistan and its military serve as the refining and distribution end for 70 percent of the global heroin business.
Pakistan has become a seething cesspool of global evil. In the context of its general lawlessness and support for Islamic terrorism, Pakistan's possession of nuclear weapons is a threat to world security.
Surely someone in Washington must be aware of this?
First of all the US has required Pakistani help…. Ooops, sorry, I meant Pakistani airspace and land to root out the al Queda bases last year. Thus they had to be in the good graces of the Pakistani government, and accusing them as terrorists (like the British Foreign Secretary did last week by calling Pakistan the leading terrorist supporter in the world today) would have made the use of airspace and land curtailed.
Secondly it seems that feigning ignorance and unawareness is in vogue within the intelligence circles. In other countries this is not the case. For example the Israeli Mossad has been collaborating with the Indian RAW and carrying out aggressive forays into Pakistan. They know they inherent danger posed by the Pakistanis, and they are willing to do something about it. However at present the US seems complacent, and is targeting Iraq and leaving Pakistan behind in a bid to make ‘our Muslim allies’ to not get angry and leave the ‘coalition.’
The reason we are doing this is because if we were to start naming Pakistan as a threat then we would alienate many Islamic nations that would accuse us of religious xenophobia and encapsulation.
However the problem with that is that based on past experiences, government shifts occur through coup de tats! And there is a likelihood that the next Pakistani government may be radical….. and armed with a nuke arsenal! And with a mindset that would allow them to attack the US (and no other threat to the states has been so dangerous. The old block communists would never have launched since they knew a retaliation would take place… thus the concept of MAD. The current N. Koreans and the Chinese would also not do such a dumb thing. And the slew of Islamic countries seeking a nuclear arsenal are primarily doing it for egoistical and Israeli-deterrence reasons, since their governments are not as radical. For example Iraq is a virtual aethist state since Saddam fears Islamic revolution, and Iranian government is becoming extremely moderate.). However recent interviews with Pakistani generals show them as individuals who would be willing to see their own destruction if it meant destroying even one Indian city…. And in the future India will be substituted for the USA, just as the Mujahadeens substituted the occupying Soviet forces for the United states once that threat went.
Yet we sleep. I hope we are not woken up by another atrocity against the US populace!