PAKISTAN SINKING - AT 7:45 A.M. ET:  This could turn out to be one of the major stories of our time.  Sadly, it has not yet resonated with the American public.  What happens in Pakistan often seems so vague and distant.  Not really.  From the Washington Post:

SLAMABAD, Pakistan, April 19 -- A potentially troubling era dawned Sunday in Pakistan's Swat Valley, where a top Islamist militant leader, emboldened by a peace agreement with the federal government, laid out an ambitious plan to bring a "complete Islamic system" to the surrounding northwest region and the entire country.

Speaking to thousands of followers in an address aired live from Swat on national news channels, cleric Sufi Mohammed bluntly defied the constitution and federal judiciary, saying he would not allow any appeals to state courts under the system of sharia, or Islamic law, that will prevail there as a result of the peace accord signed by the president Tuesday.

"The Koran says that supporting an infidel system is a great sin," Mohammed said, referring to Pakistan's modern democratic institutions. He declared that in Swat, home to 1.5 million people, all "un-Islamic laws and customs will be abolished," and he suggested that the official imprimatur on the agreement would pave the way for sharia to be installed in other areas.

COMMENT:  They key point is that Pakistan has nuclear weapons.  Should they fall into the hands of an Islamist regime, dedicated to destroying "the infidel," we're in trouble.  Remember, we're the infidel, the Great Satan.

Watch this carefully.

April 20, 2009