Nuclear Holocaust May Render Global Meltdown Moot

American children often play a game that involves asking a friend if they would rather be run over by a train or throw off a building, or some such variation. Since no of them will be able to afford to go to college now, they will never know the correct answer, which is to punch your so-called friend right in his stupid face. Thanks Philosophy major!

The world at large faces a similar conundrum. If we can survive the virtually world-wide recession, we have this to look forward to. The Nation's editors write:

The aftermath of the bloody terrorist attack in Mumbai won't be confined to the city, or to India. It threatens to cascade across the region, from India to Pakistan to Afghanistan and beyond, making the interlocked conflicts in South Asia dramatically worse. Even if it doesn't result in what ought to be unthinkable, but isn't--a war between two hostile, nuclear-armed powers--it could easily escalate into a full-blown crisis.

Luckily for Captain Obama, the United States shares some of the blame:

It's an ugly situation, and one the United States had a part in creating. In the 1980s America and Saudi Arabia poured billions of dollars into ISI to underwrite the anti-Soviet jihad in Afghanistan, helping to create the same extremist groups, including Al Qaeda, that plague Afghanistan, Pakistan and India--and the United States--today. In the 1990s the United States and Saudi Arabia looked the other way as Pakistan created the Taliban as a tool to establish a radical Islamist regime in Kabul. And in the past several years the United States has poured $11 billion into the Pakistani military, with little or no oversight, in its ironically misguided "war on terror."

Ok, fine, The Nation. Enough of this navel-gazing. America wants answers, and when this blog wants answers, we turn to the sober assessment of Sean Hannity. While they might not exactly translate, you can see how they could apply. Political Animal reports:

Last night, on Fox News, Sean Hannity insisted that United States needs to "take out" Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. [Pastor Rick] Warren said he agreed. Hannity asked, "Am I advocating something dark, evil or something righteous?" Warren responded, "Well, actually, the Bible says that evil cannot be negotiated with. It has to just be stopped.... In fact, that is the legitimate role of government. The Bible says that God puts government on earth to punish evildoers. Not good-doers. Evildoers."

Remember when people like this ran our government! Great times for comedy, those were.

UPDATE: Not good. From the NY Times:

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — A powerful explosion struck a crowded central bazaar in the chaotic city of Peshawar in Pakistan’s northwest on Friday, killing at least 18 people and injuring around eighty, Pakistani television and news agencies reported on Friday.
...
"It was a bomb,” a senior police official, Kashif Alam, was quoted by Reuters as saying. “The number of casualties is very high. People are still trapped under the rubble.”