Genuinely Worried

By John Amato — October 6, 2004

The Wrath of Khan

I look forward to the day when we have people who are about nuclear proliferation in the White House (via Digby):

GEORGE W. BUSH: The A.Q. Khan network has been brought to justice.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: To justice? The guy has been -- Khan has been freed. He's been pardoned by President Musharraf. And none of his associates have been brought to justice.

RICE: Well, his associates are in the process of being brought to justice. BSA Tahir (ph) is in custody. Several other members are in custody.

BLITZER: But Khan himself lives in a villa. And the IAEA would like to question him, and the Pakistani government doesn't even allow that to happen.

RICE: I think we all know that A.Q. Khan was a particular kind of figure in Pakistani lore, a national hero. And Musharraf has dealt with what is a very difficult situation about A.Q. Khan, by making certain that he's out of business, making certain that he loses the kinds of privileges that he had to travel and the like.
[. . .]
RICE: A.Q. Khan is out of business and he is out of the business that he loved most. And if you don't think that his national humiliation is justice for what he did, I think it is. He's nationally humiliated.

Considering that the "business he loved the most" was selling nuclear technology to anyone who asked (incl. Libya, Iran, and North Korea), it seems to me that his punishment should be a little more severe than embarassment. A couple years ago, there was a guy in a nearby country who the Bushies suspected of intending to do the things this guy actually did, and if I remember correctly, the punshment was a bit harsher than making him say "My bad." on national TV.

An overly generous way of describing Bush's dedication to stopping nuclear proliferation would to say that his support is a bit "soft". Perhaps a more realistic appriasal would be that Bush is a fucking liar and hypocrite. If Bush was so goddamned concerned about sending "mixed messages" to the international community and if he really believed that the biggest threat to our safety is "weapons of mass destruction in the hands of a terrorist network", then there's no excuse for treating a definite supplier of WMD's with kid gloves while treating a possible supplier with "Shock & Awe™". Spreading weeapons of mass destruction is one of the most egregious acts anyone can possibly commit in this post 9/11 world, and the Bush Administration's weakness in dealing with the biggest supplier of them all tells you all you should need to know about thier seriousness in fighting the war on terror.

Memo to Kerry : One of the highlights of your performance the other day was when you hit Bush hard on North Korea and nuclear proliferation. Friday night, you should throw this quote back in Bush's face.