by Victor Davis Hanson<\/p>\n
NRO’s\u00a0The Corner<\/em><\/p>\n L<\/span>ost in all the frenzied reaction to the Bhutto assassination is any consistency of critique. So we hear that the U.S. is to be blamed for not pressuring Musharraf, and yet blamed for putting all our eggs in the democratic basket of Benazir Bhutto. So what is it, are we naive and utopian to keep trying to plug away at fostering consensual governments in Afghanistan and Iraq, pressuring Syria to keep out of Lebanon, and jawboning the Gulf monarchies and Mubarak, lecturing Musharraf, etc. \u2014 or are we cold-blooded and cynical in dealing in the here and now with these existing autocracies?<\/p>\n And the furor over WMD is not logical either. The greatest diplomatic lapse in the last quarter-century was the allowance of Pakistan to go nuclear in 1998, in part due to the failures of the CIA (over three administrations) and the distractions and lack of consistency in dealing with the final stages of this crisis by the distracted Clinton administration.<\/p>\n Yet, we know that Iraq will not reacquire WMD; our supposedly brilliant intelligence agencies claim Iran quit its nuclear-weapons program in 2003 (right after our removal of Saddam), Libya came clean about the same time and for the same reasons, and we are told North Korea has at least ostensibly ceased.<\/p>\n So when we talk about our current failures vis-a-vis Pakistan and the general chaos abroad, history may take a longer view, and see that our present dismal prospects in Pakistan derive in large part from its nuclearization (Khan was exposed and his nuclear profiteering abroad shut down in 2003\/4) a decade ago, and that, contrary to conventional wisdom, we have done pretty well in trying to limit the number of new nuclear states during the last few years.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u00a92007 Victor Davis Hanson<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Victor Davis Hanson NRO’s\u00a0The Corner Lost in all the frenzied reaction to the Bhutto assassination is any consistency of critique. So we hear that the U.S. is to be blamed for not pressuring Musharraf, and yet blamed for putting all our eggs in the democratic basket of Benazir Bhutto.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[746],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-SD","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3495,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/dictators-and-democrats\/","url_meta":{"origin":3387,"position":0},"title":"Dictators and Democrats","author":"victorhanson","date":"November 11, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Stick with principles--not personalities by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online I\u00a0don\u2019t think many Americans would argue that the answer for the sometimes lethargic, elected Karzai government in Afghanistan should be a coup by a Pashtun warlord and his battle-hardened lieutenants. Prime Minister Maliki and his elected government in Iraq\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "November 2007"","block_context":{"text":"November 2007","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2007\/november-2007\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3705,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/club-america\/","url_meta":{"origin":3387,"position":1},"title":"Club America","author":"victorhanson","date":"January 22, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services When Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman pulled up to Savannah, Ga., after his legendary March to the Sea in December 1864, he was savagely slandered in the Southern press as a renegade leader of a \"vandal horde.\" But at that same time, leading Confederate\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Janurary 2007"","block_context":{"text":"Janurary 2007","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2007\/janurary-2007\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3189,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/back-to-the-old-911-world\/","url_meta":{"origin":3387,"position":2},"title":"Back to the Old 9\/11 World","author":"victorhanson","date":"December 8, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services For three days, Islamist gunmen nearly shut down Mumbai, the financial center of India.The terrorists \u2014 Pakistani militants, according to Indian authorities \u2014 murdered almost 200 innocents and left hundreds of others wounded, giving reprieve only to hostages they thought were Muslims. The\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "December 2008"","block_context":{"text":"December 2008","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2008\/december-2008\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5055,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/short-term-pain-long-term-gain\/","url_meta":{"origin":3387,"position":3},"title":"Short-Term Pain & Long-Term Gain","author":"victorhanson","date":"May 31, 2002","format":false,"excerpt":"Why the war on terror is not the Cold War. by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online For much of the 1990s the autocrats of the former Yugoslavia seized control of the fragmenting country and initiated an ethnically inspired bloodbath. 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In these first 100 days of his presidency, Barack Obama has\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "April 2009"","block_context":{"text":"April 2009","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2009\/april-2009\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3933,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-vocabulary-of-untruth\/","url_meta":{"origin":3387,"position":5},"title":"The Vocabulary of Untruth","author":"victorhanson","date":"July 28, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Words take on new meanings as Israel struggles to survive. by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online A\u00a0\u201cceasefire\u201d would occur should Hezbollah give back kidnapped Israelis and stop launching missiles; it would never follow a unilateral cessation of Israeli bombing. 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