Not many Americans are very keen on geography, so here is a brief tutorial on Pakistan. It is the most populous Muslim country in the world, roughly 165 million people. It is located between Iran, Afghanistan, India, and China. Pakistan has been in a territory dispute with India and China over the Kashmir region since 1947. All three of these countries are nuclear powers.

Recently, the President of Pakistan, Perez Musharraf, suspended the country’s constitution and elections. The Chief Justice and thirteen Supreme Court judges were replaced with Musharraf loyalists, and the country was placed under an indefinite state of emergency.

Musharraf replaced his entire presidential cabinet with political supporters; then, after resigning his post as head of the army, he had himself sworn in for another five-year term in office, his new Supreme Court dismissing all legal challenges. Pakistan is virtually a police state.

The move by Musharraf comes as two former prime ministers and now political rivals, Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif, return from exile. Both fled in 1999, when Musharraf deposed Sharif in a military coup.

Bhutto's return was met with twin bombs at her welcome parade. The Musharraf government placed her under house arrest when she tried to organize a protest rally. The American government gave the usual line of “we denounce this move.”

Sharif, now supported by our good friends the Saudis, was the Pakistani leader who liked to test nuclear weapons, and was happy to let the Taliban take over next door in Afghanistan back in the 1990s.

Pakistan's ongoing turmoil puts the Bush Administration in a foreign policy quagmire. Musharraf is a close ally of Mr. Bush and his war on terror. Pakistan receives more than a billion dollars a year in aid from America, and some in Washington are calling for that to change.

Pakistan is also an important hub for getting supplies and personnel in and out of Afghanistan. So it is a case of "damned if you do, damned if you don’t" for Bush. If he cuts ties to the Pakistani government, he risks losing one of very few allies in that region of the world, which happens to be a nuclear power. If he remains friendly with Musharraf, he violates official U.S. foreign policy since 1945 for promoting democracy around the world, by sending American taxpayer dollars to what is essentially a dictatorship.

Now, let’s not beat around the Bush, the major concern of the rest of the world is the fact that this is a nuclear nation, with portions controlled by the same terrorists we are fighting in Afghanistan.

Musharraf has said that the nuclear weapons are safe, and spread out in components that no single, rogue terrorist group could use. This does little to ease the fears of the international community. Every head of state worries that the next spectacular 9/11-style attack could be on one of their cities, only this time with nukes.

When Sharif successfully tested a nuclear bomb was in 1998, Pakistan started to create a nuclear force largely because its threatening neighbor, India, had its own nuclear arsenal. It would seem odd then if the U.S. would try to influence anyone in the region to do anything but disarm. Yet, last year the Bush administration approved a deal to sell nuclear weapons components to India, a clear violation of the International Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

With India beefing up its arsenal and the Musharraf government becoming more susceptible to an uprising, it is possible that a nuclear bomb could be detonated somewhere in the region in the next four years. While most of Pakistan’s population is comprised of moderate Muslims, it only takes one well-connected group to usurp and abuse power (Taliban, House of Saud, Bush Family, etc.).

No one wins a nuclear war. The ecological effects of a nuclear war would devastate not only the region, but also the whole globe. Nuclear proliferation is a serious threat to our planet. If a nuke were in the hands of an Al-Qaeda type, the world would be his hostage.

So what happens in Pakistan matters more than just Pakistan and America; the ramifications could be globally permanent. It is highly important that Pakistan stabilize their political situation before it spirals out of control.

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Copyright 2007 Metropolitan Community College