Pakistan's mercenary elites

In Pakistan today there is a paradox crying for an explanation; it is a paradox, moreover, whose exploration can bring some clarity to the predicament of the Islamicate today.
In January 2002, when President George Bush defined his agenda for waging wars, he fixed his sights on Iraq, Iran and North Korea: the "axis of evil" marked for regime change. These countries were targeted -- we were told -- because they were developing "weapons of mass destruction." In the case of Iraq and Iran, this was only a cover. More likely, the two countries were targeted because they opposed Israeli hegemony. Perhaps, too, the US wanted their oil.
Oddly, Pakistan was not targeted for regime change. Yes, Pakistan has no oil. But the US-Israel axis could find her culpable on several other counts, each quite damnable. Pakistan is the only Islamicate country to possess nuclear weapons; she was guilty of nuclear proliferation; she was the chief patron of the Taliban regime; she has been accused by India of supporting cross-border terrorism in Kashmir; and, on the first two counts, Israel could tag Pakistan as the most serious threat to her security.
Why was Pakistan not being targeted?
This question has gathered even greater force over the past two years; and for two reasons. After being stalled for a while by the ferocity of the Iraqi resistance, US plans for war against Iran are once again gathering steam. In the past few weeks, Israelis, neo-cons, Christian Zionists, and assorted hawks, have again been baying for Iranian blood. Now, the US Senate, too, has joined the chorus. On September 26, with an overwhelming vote, it virtually handed President Bush the license to wage war against Iran.
At the same time, there is little doubt now that Pakistan is "hosting" both al-Qaeda and the Taliban. Now rejuvenated, both organisations are operating from "liberated" territories in Pakistan's Waziristan. More ominously, last July, Pakistani allies of the Taliban dared to challenge the authority of the state in Pakistan's capital. And, since their rout there, they have continued to mount deadly attacks on the Pakistan army.
Yet, even today, there is no talk of adding Pakistan to the "axis of evil." Why is there no clamour in the United States or Israel to invade Waziristan, to attack Pakistan's nuclear facilities, to punish her for nuclear proliferation, or to launch covert operations to seize Pakistan's nuclear assets before they fall into the hands of Pakistani nationalists, the Taliban or al-Qaeda? This is the Pakistani paradox.
[For the full version of this article please read this month's Forum available with The Daily Star on Monday, November 5.]
M. Shahid Alam is Professor of Economics at Northeastern University. He is author of Challenging the New Orientalism (2007).