The Odds of Extremists Getting Pakistan's Nukes

Not exactly your Tuesday morning "feel good" moment when you read that Pakistan's nuclear weapons facilities have been attacked three times by Islamic extremists.

WASHINGTON: Pakistan's nuclear facilities have already been attacked at least thrice by its home-grown extremists and terrorists in little reported incidents over the last two years, even as the world remains divided over the safety and security of the nuclear weapons in the troubled country, according to western analysts.

The incidents, tracked by Shaun Gregory, a professor at Bradford University in UK, include an attack on the nuclear missile storage facility at Sargodha on November 1, 2007, an attack on Pakistan's nuclear airbase at Kamra by a suicide bomber on December 10, 2007, and perhaps most significantly the August 20, 2008 attack when Pakistani Taliban suicide bombers blew up several entry points to one of the armament complexes at the Wah cantonment, considered one of Pakistan's main nuclear weapons assembly.

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Pakistan insists that its nuclear weapons are fully secured and there is no chance of them falling into the hands of the extremists or terrorists.

No chance, eh?

That statement alone ought to chill your coffee. There is no chance that roosters will lay eggs, or that aliens will land at the Dept. of Treasury with a saucer loaded with ten tons of gold bullion as a gift to the American people.

But those jihadis are pretty determined. Their odds might be long, but I don't think they're zero.

Maybe we should take out Pakistan's nuclear capability. It would serve as a signature warning for other rambunctious nations in that area.

Then we could reassess those chances to be at zero.

Another Threat from the Piss-ant Norks

Another day, another threat of nuclear annihilation from North Korea.

Yawn.

SEOUL, South Korea—Punching their fists into the air and shouting "Let's crush them!" some 100,000 North Koreans packed Pyongyang's main square Thursday for an anti-U.S. rally as the communist regime promised a "fire shower of nuclear retaliation" for any American-led attack.

Several demonstrators held up a placard depicting a pair of hands smashing a missile with "U.S." written on it, according to footage taken by APTN in Pyongyang on the anniversary of the day North Korean troops charged southward, sparking the three-year Korean War in 1950.

North Korean troops will respond to any sanctions or U.S. provocations with "an annihilating blow," one senior official vowed—a pointed threat as an American destroyer shadowed a North Korean freighter sailing off China's coast, possibly with banned goods on board.

Apparently these yahoos have no clue as to how many nuclear devices we could drop on their little piss-ant country if we took a notion to do so. Sure, it wouldn't make the South Koreans very happy, would serious torque the Chinese, and the Japanese are still awfully jittery about those two little bombs we dropped nearly 64 years ago.

But if the Norks do something foolish too quickly, they better have dug some themselves some serious bomb shelters.

Of course, if Waxman-Markey passes Congress, we probably can't afford the carbon offsets on even a tiny nuclear exchange with pissant North Korea. Have you made that call to your congressperson yet?

Obama's Innocence Abroad

Headline: Obama says Iran's energy concerns legitimate

LONDON -- President Barack Obama suggested that Iran may have some right to nuclear energy _ provided it proves by the end of the year that its aspirations are peaceful.

In a BBC interview broadcast Tuesday, he also restated plans to pursue direct diplomacy with Tehran to encourage it set aside any ambitions for nuclear weapons it might harbor.

Iran is sitting on an ocean of oil and natural gas. But it needs nuclear power?

The Iranian president can surely thank Obama for this public relations victory ten days before national elections. This is the same man, by the way, who regularly calls for Israel to be wiped off the map.

Of course, for that matter, so does Ahmadinejad's "moderate" opponent in the election.

But by all means, Mr. Obama, let's give them until the end of the year to pursue those peaceful nukes.