On The Precipice Of Pakistans Overthrow

America's semi-reliable ally, Pakistan, is on the precipice of overthrow. The political climate there has ripened into a disaster in the making. Benazir Bhutto's husband is now in office, but only tenuously. They are having energy and food shortages. Al-Qaeda has taken control of two regions. The military command is dicey. Terrorists have longed for an opportunity to gain control of nuclear weapons, and may have found their mark. If the government there falls to radical Islamists, then the western world will be fighting for it's own survival. Pakistan has a nuclear arsenal.

This is the picture being outlined in a soon-to-be released U.S. Intelligence Assessment.

A U.S. official who participated in drafting the top secret National Intelligence Estimate said it portrays the situation in Pakistan as "very bad." Another official called the draft "very bleak," and said it describes Pakistan as being "on the edge."

The first official summarized the estimates conclusions about the state of Pakistan as: "no money, no energy, no government."

Six U.S. officials who helped draft or are aware of the document's findings confirmed them on the condition of anonymity because NIEs are top secret and are restricted to the president, senior officials and members of Congress. An NIE's conclusions reflect the consensus of all 16 U.S. intelligence agencies.

The NIE on Pakistan, along with others being prepared on Afghanistan and Iraq, will underpin a "strategic assessment" of the situation that Army Gen. David Petraeus, who's about to take command of all U.S. forces in the region, has requested. The aim of the assessment - seven years after the U.S. sent troops into Afghanistan - is to determine whether a U.S. presence in the region can be effective and if so what U.S. strategy should be.

"Can it get that bad in Pakistan? The Pakistanis themselves now say that two vital regions - Swat and the area around Peshawar - are already in al-Qaeda's hands. The whole government is rotten to the core so it won't take much to push it over.

Then what? Same thing that happened in Afghanistan. A coalition of conservative fundamentalist parties take over and we have the nightmare scenario come true.

I want to say I'm confident Obama would do something if worse came to worse, but we just don't know, do we?" - Rick Moran

This is not the same world we lived in prior to 9/11. These radicals hate everything about the western culture. They want to destroy it. A member of Hamas was quoted as saying about our negotiations:"There is nothing to negotiate. We do not want anything from you. We want to destroy you."

I see people in the middle east supporting Obama. I hope they do so out of respect for him. However, I believe that he is viewed as the weaker Presidential candidate, naive and inexperienced. He would be easier to walk over. He might also be more hesitant to react. The radicals know what to expect from McCain and it gives them pause. Not so, with a perceived weaker Obama.