A combustive mix

With the expenses scandal so dominating the news, it is easy to forget that there are other stories going on. Today’s New York Times fronts with a piece on how Pakistan is even now increasing its nuclear arsenal; proof that the Pakistani state still hasn’t switched its priorities from an arms race with India to dealing with its own insurgency. There is also an obvious risk that the more nuclear weapons Pakistan has, the more likely it is—given that we know that Pakistan’s nuclear programme has been penetrated in the past—that a nuclear weapon will fall into the wrong hands. Bruce Riedel, who ran Obama’s review of Afghanistan and Pakistan policy, sums up the situation thus:

Pakistan “has more terrorists per square mile than anyplace else on earth, and it has a nuclear weapons program that is growing faster than anyplace else on earth.”