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ARUN S. MOHAN / tHE HINDU.
EXPENSIVE BUY: Washington believed the aircraft could serve the purpose of diverting Pakistan's attention from 'the nuclear option' and in the event of an India-Pakistan war, give the U.S. a few days to mediate and prevent nuclear conflict. A file photograph of an F-16 in Italy.
The sale was considered only ‘symbolically important' by the U.S., but had many strings attached
The sale by the United States of F-16 military aircraft to Pakistan, announced in 2005, was celebrated as a sign of deepening strategic ties between Islamabad and the Bush administration in Washington. Described by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice as an attempt to “break out of the notion that [India and Pakistan are in] a hyphenated relationship,” the decision was met with anguish in New Delhi. But leaked U.S. diplomatic cables suggest that the sale was used only to further America's broad strategic interests, with Pakistan standing to gain little from the deal.
The despatches, from the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad, indicated that the deal was, among other things, meant to assuage Pakistan's fears of an “existential threat it perceived from India.” The diplomatic cables, accessed by The Hinduthrough WikiLeaks, suggested that the purpose of the sale was to divert Pakistan's attention from “the nuclear option,” and give it “time and space to employ a conventional reaction” in the event of a conflict with India (151227: confidential). Privately, however, the U.S. acknowledged the “reality” that the F-16 programme would not change India's “overwhelming air superiority over Pakistan.” In fact, the cables bluntly assert that the F-16s would be “no match for India's proposed purchase of F-18 or equivalent aircraft.”
Given India's “substantial military advantage,” one cable (197576: confidential) even surmised that the F-16s would at the most offer “a few days” for the U.S. to “mediate and prevent nuclear conflict.”
Both India and Pakistan should stop this kind of nonsensical expenditure, which rightfully belong to the peoples' primary education, health & poverty alleviation, with sustainable living.
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