NEW DELHI -- With the issue of terrorism threatening to spark an open military confrontation between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan, U.S. President George W. Bush is rushing his defense secretary to the subcontinent in a last-ditch effort to persuade Islamabad to sever its links with terror groups.
The paradox is that Pakistan is both a key ally in the U.S.-led antiterror war in Afghanistan and the main sanctuary of al-Qaeda, the Taliban and other transnational terrorists. While the West worries about terrorists possibly acquiring weapons of mass destruction, Pakistan has state-supported terrorists and nuclear weapons controlled by Islamist generals.
Today the Pakistani military regime is employing nuclear blackmail to deter India from attacking terrorist sanctuaries inside Pakistan, and using diplomatic blackmail against the United States by threatening to move its troops from the Afghan border to the Indian frontier. By playing nuclear poker, Pakistan wants to protect its export of terror.