McFreedom

InstaPundit has been talking a lot about the risks of a nuclear exchange between India and Pakistan, and why any person (sane or otherwise) would think this was a good idea. I haven't seen discussed there (or anywhere else) this chilling snippet from The Atlantic, March, 2002, titled "A Modest Proposal From the Brigadier." It's about a discussion with Brigadier Amanullah. He's Benazir Bhutto's secretary in Islamabad, working to try to allow the exiled ex-Prime Minister back into Pakistan.

Now, it may be just one lunatic's opinion, but the Brigadier outlines a Pakistani population so beaten down and discouraged that starting over, rising from the ashes of nuclear fire, looks like the better option:

"We should fire at them and take out a few of their cities—Delhi, Bombay, Calcutta," he said. "They should fire back and take Karachi and Lahore. Kill off a hundred or two hundred million people. They should fire at us and it would all be over. They have acted so badly toward us; they have been so mean. We should teach them a lesson. It would teach all of us a lesson. There is no future here, and we need to start over. So many people think this...If I were in charge, I would have already done it."

The rest of the article is similarly scary. Also, in Atlanticish news, they now have last month's cover story, "Tales of the Tyrant" available online. It's an extensive profile of Saddam Hussein.