The US should ensure its aid to Pakistan is spent properly, says Rajeev Sharma. India is suffering from the laxity.
Why is the United States propping up Pakistan in a way that it knows will likely conflict directly with Indian interests? It’s a question being raised with increasing frequency here in New Delhi these days.
The most immediate concern for the Indian establishment has been the US decision to supply sophisticated weapons to Pakistan—weaponry that is much more useful in state-to-state conflict than counter-terrorism (for which it is virtually useless). Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh raised the issue with US President Barack Obama during their 50-minute bilateral meeting in Washington DC earlier this month, having already done so during his previous visit to the United States.
During the meeting, Singh urged Washington to ensure that US military aid to Pakistan is used against terrorists and not against India. But for now, at least, the pleas appear to be falling on deaf ears. The United States is, after all, determined to increase its leverage with Pakistan over operations in Afghanistan, and the US also appears to believe that such aid is required to ensure the survival of the civilian government there.
As a result, the US State Department is increasing its funds for Pakistan’s counter-insurgency efforts—which will allow Pakistan to buy more US helicopters, night vision goggles and other military equipment—from $700 million this year to $1.2 billion in 2011.
Yet reports suggest Pakistan has been using its national funds to buy US weapons more suited to conflict between states—and it surely would have traditional rival India in mind when doing so. According to the US Congressional Research Service, the current tally of US arms that have been purchased by Pakistan since 2001 includes: 18 new F-16 combat aircraft; F-16 armaments including 500 AIM-120C5 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile (AMRAAM) systems; 100 Harpoon anti-ship missiles; 500 Sidewinder air-to-air missiles; six Phalanx close-in naval guns; P-3C Orion maritime patrol aircraft and their refurbishment; 121 TOW missile launchers and about 5,250 TOW anti-armour missiles.
None of these could be viewed as for anti-terrorist operations—the P-3C Orion, for example, is an excellent anti-submarine and anti-ship platform, while TOW missiles would be deadly against tanks. Al-Qaeda and the Taliban have no submarines, armoured fighting vehicles or airplanes. So who is the most likely intended target? It makes New Delhi wonder.
Pakistan doesn’t need sophisticated weaponry to fight terrorists—what it needs (and is lacking) is the political and military will to go after them. And, while Pakistan certainly needs more economic aid, any such assistance should only be provided by the United States if it can ensure that Pakistan does not misuse it to buy armaments.
As Indian Defense Minister AK Antony stated on March 6, ‘the US decision to supply sophisticated arms to Pakistan is a matter of serious concern to New Delhi as the experience has been that these are used against India.’ He also reiterated that India believes the US government should make sure that these weapons are deployed on the Pakistan-Afghan border against Taliban, not diverted towards the Indo-Pakistan border.
Photo Credit: White House
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Riaz Missen
The Indian writers, most prominently, the ones writing on international politics appear to lack understanding about Pakistan, its people and their problems. What governments do in the domestic and international arena, is not necessarily, what an average Pakistani wants it to do. The very fact that in the most part of its existence the country has been ruled by dictators and that the legacies of the past take time to be undone, is enough to understand where real Pakistan stands. One other striking fact should be noted: Pakistan’s religious face is misleading because no sectarian group has basically an origin on this country’s soil. Whatever they do or agitate for, serves the purpose of everone around (Saudis, Iranis and Indians) but not that of the majority, which is even today under-represented and marginalised. The foreign influences are so strong that real Pakistan is no more visible to anyone. Pakistan, actually, is a pluralist society, largely tribal in nature; it was and remains secular in essence even today despite sustained efforts by the foreign powers and their collaborators. More democracy stays, the more the world will be able to see real Pakistan.
neel123
The Indian commentators complaining about US arms supply to Pakistan, shows painful lack of their basic understanding about geo-politics !!
The Anglo-Americans have had a long relationship with Pakistan, and Pakistan willingly carries out their dirty works in exchange of billions of dollars in aid and arms. This is not going to change regardless of what India would expect.
Now if that is detrimental to India, it is India’s problem, not of the Americans.
Bottom line is, the Indian media commentators need to understand the very basic facts that :
1) Ethical considerations have no place in geo-politics, and what matters is national interests based on hard pragmatism, by all means.
2) the US is not a friend of India, neither its an outright enemy, their own geo-strategic ambitions in the region does not count on India alone.
3) India can not outsource its security to the US, or any other nation for that matter.
4) Big powers never welcome rise of another power. The Americans will use India to contain China, while making sure that India is always contained by Pakistan.
Unipolar world is a dangerous place ! Indians policy makers surely understand these basic facts, and they will surely welcome and work towards rise of new power centres to counter the Americans, China included !
juninho
Who cares? The Indian Air Force has 130 Sukhoi Su-30MKI’s in active service, and this aircraft just might be the best air superiority fighter jet in the world. It’s done very well in joint exercises against US aircraft (F-15, F-16, F/A-18) anyway…
And the Indian Navy has ordered eight P-8 Poseidons. The P-8’s Boeing 737 airframe is a generation ahead of the P-3 Orion…
The qualitative and quantitative difference between Indian and Pakistani military is wide and is only going to get wider… $1 Billion a year in military aid to Pakistan is NOTHING. Add to this the fact the the Indian lobby in the US is strong and is getting stronger by the day will only put military aid to Pakistan under more scrutiny…
India has achieved military superiority over Pakistan. Now it needs to focus on dominating the Indian Ocean basin and preventing China from projecting naval influence in the region…
Daulat Ram
The US should go right ahead and do what it has to do without worrying about India. India should be more than big enough to look after itself.
As an Indian, I feel humiliated by this Indian cry-baby attitude towards the US. It seems to me we have never got over our profound inferiority complex derived from centuries of foreign rule.
India never seems to attend to its own problems. It expects some Big Brother to come running to its aid. For a country of 1200 million people, this would be comical if it weren’t tragic.
Please, India, if you have a problem with Pakistan – sort it out yourself. America is not a nanny.
Nomad
Thank you for your comment! Glad to hear a reasonable attitude. Peace~ams
Saleem Hatoum
Mr. Rajeev Sharma needs to acquire a lot of more knowledge about military hardware and their capabilities. He also needs to see the bigger picture about the GWOT rather than narrow tunnel vision about Pakistan’s military.
Pakistan has used all its air assets in fighting the foreign-helped militants — this includes F-16s. The F-16 is a multi-role fighter aircraft and it would be beyond stupidity not purchase these aircraft without all its weaponry. On the other hand, India has the fourth largest air force in the world and 70% of its assets along with it air-bases are located less than 100 miles from Pakistani border. According to conservative estimates IAF has more than 700 combat aircraft which includes the most modern Russian S-30, MiG-29, Mig-21, Mig-27, British/French Jaguars, and French Mirage 2000 fighter aircraft.
TOW missiles that the US sold to Pakistan are also known “bunker buster” variant for use against fortified structures and caves. The TOW missile has been used a lot in the fight against the militants.
P-3 Orions LRMTPA armed with harpoons along with Phalanx CWIS are used in Combined Task Force 150 (CTF-150). CTF-150 is a multinational coalition naval task force with logistics facilities at Djibouti that was established to monitor, inspect, board, and stop suspect shipping to pursue the “War on Terrorism” and in the Horn of Africa region (HOA) (includes operations in the North Arabia Sea to support Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF), and operations in the Indian Ocean) to support Operation Enduring Freedom – Horn of Africa (OEF-HOA).
Indians like Rajeev Sharma have a very acute fixation problem with Pakistan. They need to come out of this shell and try seeing things from a different angle, one which the rest of the world is looking through.
ALi Khattak
I personally feel the article to be extremely biased. The weapons of aircrafts bought from US is for the country’s defence. And yes it means primarily defence against INDIA. IF we stop taking sides and thing about it, Pakistan does need to buy the arms. The recent defence spending, including 126 new planes to be bought by India, is definitely a big threat for Pakistan. And so it needs to have a minimum of equipment to defend itself in case there is a war. It is true that Pakistan has a problem of militancy and there have been elements supporting Taliban. But on other side there is a good majority fighting against those extremists. And We all are aware that such extremism is also present in INDIA. Just the religion is different. SO I would strongly suggest the media to write articles just based on facts and figures and the people will know what is right and what is wrong. Articles like this only will create more hatred in people of both sides
chandrabhan
Well well well. US is giving arms to pakistan so that Pacquistan can fight the Taliban better. In case you did not know…
1. WLR (weapon locating radars) are for locating the tank positions when they fire a shell
2. Taliban has a huge Armour – Tanks & APC and the name of the force is called the Pakistan army( mullahs in camaflouge)
3. In case you did not know Taliban also has a lot of submarines -PC3 Orions are for this purpose
4. Harpoon missiles are for the same – sinking taliban subs
5. F16 are for fighting the Taliban air force of Migs and Rafales
This is a classic Pakistan perfidy and US duplicity. MMS is a joke that has been thrusted on this country. I simply can’t understand why we are becoming subvesient to American policies?