Less than 24 hours after I wrote this post on my general disgust at the decision by the Bush administration to sell advanced military technology to a nuclear weapons-proliferating military dictatorship that has many terrorists inside its borders comes this report in the Los Angeles Times. The first sentence basically says it all.
A federal criminal investigation has uncovered evidence that the government of Pakistan made clandestine purchases of U.S. high-technology components for use in its nuclear weapons program in defiance of American law.
What will we do about this? We'll sell them high-tech weapons of course! That's the obvious answer (at least in Bush reality). Which isn't to say that all parts of the government support this move. But people who want to take a harder line (and a wagging finger or put-out sigh would be appear to be a harder line than we are currently taking against these violations) are failing to gain any ground in DC.
The impasse is part of a larger tug-of-war between federal agencies that enforce U.S. nonproliferation laws and policymakers who consider Pakistan too important to embarrass.
"Too important to embarrass". You wouldn't think it would remain possible ... but every so often this administration can still provoke a reaction of stunned disbelief.
Posted by armand at March 27, 2005 01:40 PM | TrackBack | Posted to International Affairs