August 21, 2007 ☼ Foreign Affairs
This is an archived blog post from The Acorn.
The Pakistani foreign office must be feeling kind of left out of the news these days. With all international media attention being focused on the issue of Gen Musharraf’s political (and physical) survival, they don’t even get to say “the allegations are baseless” to pesky journalists who bother to check.
Their latest attempt to attract attention is by announcing that Pakistan would test nuclear weapons in case India proceeds to do so. But here’s the thing—no one thinks that’s news. Even the non-proliferation_wallahs_ in America don’t really need to quote the Pakistani foreign office as they lobby Congress against approving the 123 agreement. The Indian media is absorbed in the political crisis, and the security establishment doesn’t need this signal to know what Pakistan will do.
In fact, this statement matters so little that whoever decided that it is sensible to threaten retaliatory explosions at a time when the world is worrying about the safety of Pakistan’s nukes is likely to keep his job. (Imagine Pakistan had said they won’t respond to an Indian test—now that would have made people sit up! Wake up, rather, because you’d have to be dreaming to hear that one)
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