Pakistan’s push is said to be related to President Obama’s call for a treaty banning the production of weapons-grade fissile material, an effort to churn out as big a stockpile as possible before such a ban takes place.
A late entry into the nuclear weapons game, Pakistan has one of the world’s smallest arsenals and very little material to make more. Paradoxically however the US outrage at Pakistan’s increase in nuke investment comes at the same time they are pressing other nations to increase their investment in weapons of mass destruction.
The Pentagon has been pressuring Britain for months to pledge to keep their own nuclear arsenal, at a time when its expense has made it controversial. Germany, a non-nuclear power, has also been under pressure to keep its nuke-capable bombers in service, allowing them to ferry US-made nuclear bombs into potential warzones.
The position underscores the curious policies of an Obama Administration which claims to be in favor of global nuclear disarament, but which has declared that Israel has a “right” to its own massive arsenal. Which rails at Pakistan’s expenses but balks at the prospect of British cuts, and which has spent the last several IAEA meetings picking fights with non-nuclear powers like Syria.
