Rogue (and failed) states

Rogue states provide sanctuary, financing or weaponry to terrorist networks.

“When nuclear weapons were an elite club of five relatively sane world powers, the Left was convinced the planet was about to go ka-boom any minute, and the handful of us who survived would be walking in a nuclear winter wonderland. Now anyone with a few thousand bucks and an unlisted number in Islamabad in his Rolodex can get a nuke, and the Left couldn't care less.”

The provocative Mark Steyn exaggerates to make his well-made point. The post cold war world is not safe. We are faced with the deadly threat of terrorist networks entering into deadly partnerships with rogue or failed states:

• Rogue states choose to feed terrorist networks.
• Failed states – because of weakness - are simply unable to prevent terrorist networks from operating within their borders and stealing technologies that might be useful for their evil designs.

The danger of rogue states

Terrorists need rogue nations for shelter, money and weaponry. Rogue states – like Taliban-controlled Afghanistan – have allowed terrorist networks to camp inside their borders and train for their war on the west. Other rogue states – particularly Saddam’s Iraq – have financed terrorists. Saddam showered the families of Palestinian suicide bombers with money and gave shelter to terrorists - like Abu Nidal and Abu Abbas - fleeing international justice. But the real danger of rogue nations is their potential to supply arms or weapons technology to terrorists. That is why it was always essential for Saddam’s totalitarian regime - with its WMD technologies and record of aggression – to be pre-emptively toppled.

Dealing with rogue states

Nine days after 9/11 President George W Bush was clear that every terrorist-supporting nation was in his sights. In an address to Congress he said that dealing with failed nations would be a fundamental component of the war on terror:

“Every nation, in every region, now has a decision to make. Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists. From this day forward, any nation that continues to harbour or support terrorism will be regarded by the United States as a hostile regime”.

Some rogue regimes – Afghanistan and Iraq – had to be forcibly overthrown. Libya chose to surrender its WMDs voluntarily. Iran and North Korea – two nations belonging to what George W Bush called the ‘axis of evil’ – still need to be addressed.