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West Should Buy Out Pakistan's Nukes

Trading needed aid dollars for elimination of WMDs would be cheap compared to bailout

By Harry Kimball, Newser Staff

Posted Dec 16, 2008 4:05 PM CST

(Newser) – Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal has done nothing to steady its economy or deter terrorism, Bret Stephens notes in the Wall Street Journal—so why not sell it to the West? Pakistan has already lobbied for economic aid; for eliminating “its entire nuclear stockpile and the industrial base that sustains it,” Stephens writes, “the US and other Western donors would agree to a $100 billion economic package.”

Many countries have determined that the risks of an arsenal don’t justify uncertain rewards. “There’s no compelling reason Mr. Zardari and his military brass shouldn't reach the same conclusion,” Stephens continues, “assuming excellent terms and desperate circumstances.” Not all Pakistanis would agree, but those “who have subsisted on a diet of leaves and grass so Pakistan could have its bomb might take a more pragmatic view.”

[Images (4)]

[Quotes (2)]

Pakistan-made missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads to different ranges are on display at the Defense Exhibition in Karachi, Pakistan. (AP Photo)

Pakistani president Asif Ali Zardari. (AP Photo)

Activists of a Pakistani religious party at the model of Chaghi mountain, the site of Pakistan's first nuclear test. (AP Photo)

A launcher vehicle loaded with Pakistani-made Hatf-II or Abdali ballistic missile rolls down a street during a military parade in Islamabad, Pakistan. (AP Photo)

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Because of this bomb, we can definitely destroy India and be destroyed in its response. But its function is limited to this. - Pervez Hoodbhoy,
Pakistani nuclear physicist

Pakistan remains a country that can't do the basics, like make a bicycle chain. If what its leaders want is prestige, prosperity and lasting security, they could start by creating an economy that can make one -- while unlearning how to make the bomb. -

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West Should Buy Out Pakistan's Nukes