Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: FaultLine who wrote (8219)	10/30/2001 1:03:49 PM
From: Win Smith	Respond to of 281500

I could not help feeling that it was the most important and penetrating piece of analysis we've seen in days. Ok, I can agree with that in some waggish sense, considering the traffic here in the last few days. But more seriously, why do you think the Hersh piece is a big deal? The long history of Pakistan and nukes is a little murky, but it's not like it's news or anything. I'm not sure how many farcical yearly certifications that Pakistan wasn't developing nukes were sent up from the White House to Congress, but it must have gone on for 10 or 15 years at least. I think Clinton ended the farce somehow by declaring we weren't going to check anymore or something. I once, long ago, queried an old SI hand who had a lot of foreign policy background about the Robert Kaplan Atlantic article on Pakistan. She tersely replied: "Pakistan has always struck me as a particularly nasty piece of the world". We've been in up to our necks there for 30-odd years at least, though, ever since Kissinger needed a secret back channel to China. I don't see how 9-11 made Pakistan a nicer or less intractable country.