Unfortunately a lot of our "Help us get bin Laden" payola money to Pakistan has been diverted to missile purchases. I'm not naming names...but look for the gold star label.

Yes, the Kashmir region is now like a pile of ---- attracting every maggot and lowlife - and the evacuation of civilized folks is always used as a diversionary tactic. So we now have our soldiers and agents in harms way - await potential radiation sickness or worse.

Pakistan is the problem here unfortunately. Ever since the coup - which put them into a much more pro-fundie stance - we have been dealing with someone who is just as likely to be a future Saddam type - for convenience sake.

It's a pure payola-type relationship and one which is doomed to failure. India has been getting shafted because our need for Pakistan's border and cooperation has emboldened them to push the frontier and mobilize and arm more fundies.

So the US is damned if we abandon Pakistan - because it will put undue pressure on the new Afghani "free" government, yet we are damned if we let the extremists get India - which may be in the future a vewry great allie in this region (not to mention market for our goods)

So Bush is getting all sorts of signals and demands and he is walking the nightmare of Presidents - the no-win scenario.

The best outcome is a stand-off that lasts until we can finish up in Afghanistan - but that is unlikely now.

Rumsfeld is going into this with few aces and only the power to subtly bribe Pakistan and India with some future perks.

Both sides really couldn't care less about the loss of life - they are overpopulated as it is. People are simply "numbers".

That is the real problem.

However you can bet we are watching from the sky and on the ground...

As for safeguards - the Pakistani and Indian missiles are not much more safeguarded than a normal missile deployment....

Which at best means some keys or/and a code.

Wonderful thing this 21st century is turning out to be eh?

;-)

SDAI-Tech1