why would we give nuclear weapons to a country that is about 4000 years culturally behind most developing nations? "w" is the answer...

Wikipedia says "Dr. Pervez Hoodbhoy is a strong and avid supporter for peaceful use of nuclear technology in Pakistan"

But todays news article says:

They decided to get the bomb after India got the bomb. India decided to get the bomb after China got the bomb.

And, Dotymed, the US didn't give Pakistan nuclear weapons, they were developed in Pakistan by Dr. Abdul Quadeer Khan. Khan not only developed a nuclear weapons capability for Pakistan, he's been a driver in nuclear proliferation. Khan's "nuclear wal-Mart,' provided North Korea with centrifuges for uranium enrichment, and probably some of the its bomb technology. He also provided centrifuges and nuclear technology to Iran and Libya.

Edited to add: Wikipedia has further information on Pakistan's nuclear weapons program, as well as their military and political doctrines on weapons of mass destruction.

Iran is not the big nuke threat this is.

with the help of Israel and India.

But par for the course coming from you.

The number of nuclear weapons in Pakistan's stockpile varies with the source, usually somewhere in the 60-90 nukes range. The first big question is: How many of those are deliverable?

Deliverable means a weapon small enough to be carried by one of Pakistan's military aircraft or fitted into the warhead of a ballistic or cruise missile. Pakistan has both cruise and ballistic missiles as well as US-provided F16 fighter aircraft.

A nuclear exchange between India and Pakistan could cause enormous loss of life, which is of course, the most important issue. It would also have consequences for the US, since we currently have so many economic assets in India. Pakistan's longer range missiles, like the Shaheen II with a range of over 1,500 miles, could reach US assets in the Gulf.

A really scary possibility is that Pakistan's nuclear program may produce 'suitcase nukes.' Whether these are even feasible is debated; but, the fact is, the US produced a number of Special Atomic Demolition Munitions (SADM's) during the Cold War. The one most commonly referenced device is the W54, weighing about 150 lbs, which would make for a rather heavy suitcase. The W54 was a variable yield device with yields ranging from 10 tons of tnt to 250 tons. That's not much by nuclear weapon standards; but, the 250 ton version would be about 50 to 100 times as powerful as the 1995 Oklahoma City explosion.

If we can't close our borders to cocaine shipments, what are our chances of preventing a nuclear terrorist from smuggling a small nuke into the US?

This is precisely why Pakistan's arsenal needs to be neutralized and their nuclear capability castrated.

Pakistan is not a responsible nation and has not signed a "no first strike" pledge like India and China have.