I realize we’re all incredibly busy pursuing the important issues–for example, the shocking news that a certain National Guardsman may not have been so enthusiastic during his Vietnam-era term of service–but I thought I might want to take a moment and point out this whole pesky nuclear proliferation thing.
You see, when we invaded Iraq and deposed Saddam Hussein–which of course we shouldn’t have done; after all, there are a lot of “bad guys” in the world, and where are the weapons?–we convinced Moammar Gaddafi that pursuing nuclear weapons wasn’t in his best interest. So he announced to the world he had been doing so and invited us to inspect the dismantling of his programs. Which led us to discover that Pakistan had been conducting a nuclear arms bazaar for several years now. They sold nuclear technology and plans to Libya, North Korea, and Iran, and attempted to do so with Iraq (whaddya know!), Syria, and probably other countries. Companies from Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, Malaysia, South Africa, Japan, Germany, and Italy were involved at one stage or another. Pakistani President Musharraf has denied that any terrorist groups were similarly approached or involved, even while he pardoned Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan, the Pakistani scientist who did all the peddling. Reports suggest that U.S. forces have secretly secured all Pakistani nuclear technology and sites–that is, the ones that are still in Pakistan.
Anyway, I know it’s really, really important to make fun of the blundering neocons, and to hold the administration personally responsible for believing the outlandish notion that maybe Saddam Hussein had chemical weapons, so carry on with that, but I thought the fact that an international nuclear-weapon proliferation conspiracy has been discovered because of our intervention in Iraq might bear mentioning.
I know, I know. Where are my priorities?