The Hindu Business Line : Betrayal twice over

ANY hope that the Bush Administration in the US, already in serious trouble for having betrayed the trust of the Americans by sending hundreds of its young soldiers to death and killing thousands of civilians in an unlawful war against Iraq under false pretences, would have learnt its lesson and not commit another act of betrayal has been dashed to the ground. Almost all sections of the media in the industrial countries, including those which had swallowed the spurious build-up given to the case for going to war and supported the Bush-Blair circus to the hilt, have been hounding and pounding the Bush Administration for the first act of betrayal. They are now hot on the scent of the second one in the making.

Mr B. Raman, the world's foremost tracker of international terrorism of the lethal Islamic jihadi variety, has been coming out for the past couple of years with meticulously documented warnings of Pakistan's perfidy (this is actually the title of one of the American journalist's recent columns) in being recklessly engaged in nuclear proliferation for many years. There is no lack of evidence staring successive US Administrations in the face from the time of the presidency of senior George Bush, and more particularly from 1993 onwards when the first bombing of the World Trade Centre took place.

Mr Raman has quoted copiously from official documents to show that the US was aware of the wheeling and dealing of the past and present rulers of Pakistan and its military establishment of which Gen. Musharraf was a central figure, with precisely those countries denounced by Mr Bush as the "axis of evil". From the writings of Mr Raman it is clear that if at all there was ever a country against which there were ample grounds for applying the doctrines of regime change and pre-emptive strike with a view to eliminating the threat of nuclear weapons falling into jihadi hands, it was not Iraq but Pakistan. (Visit www.saag.org to read his open letter to the US President and the Democratic contenders for the office).

And yet, the Bush Administration is hell-bent on letting off the hook the one person — the President of Pakistan, Gen Pervez Musharraf, no less — who poses more of a danger to the democratic world, especially to the US, than Saddam Hussein ever did. By being over-eager to buy all the yarns spun by Gen Musharraf to cover up l'affaire Abdul Qadeer Khan, it is willing to put at risk its own national interest and security, besides those of the countries in the region of which Pakistan is the epicentre. The US should wake up to the menace Pakistan has become before it is too late.