Why India Should SLAAP USA For Supporting Pakistan’s F -16 Jets ?
By
Colonel Awadhesh Kumar, Special Forces
The United States has been supporting Pakistan since 1948. First it did so covertly in 1948 in the UN thus ensuring Illegally Pakistani Occupied portions of Kashmir still remains an unresolved issue.
Next in the name of Cold War against Communism, they started not only giving economic aid but also supplying military hardware to Pakistan.
Instead of standing up to Soviet Union and China for the West, Pakistan used all the military aid to wage war on India. Their aim was to somehow wrest the entire Indian State of Jammu & Kashmir from India. They failed miserably in 1965 and lost half their country in 1971.
USA should have done a reappraisal with mid course correction but instead further increased their supply of arms to Pakistan, this time in the name of fighting the Russians in Afghanistan.
So much so that Pakistan in a way started blackmailing the USA for keeping the logistics flowing into Afghanistan for both the American military and their so called Afghani Supporters.
Most of the small arms supplied by CIA for Afghans ended up in Kashmir courtesy ISI.
With Trump , Pakistan started on a very sticky wicket but now with downing of a F16 by an Indian built MIG 21 Bison, suddenly Americans are fuming.
So Friday last Trump suddenly approved the foreign military sales worth $125 million to support the F-16 fighter jets of Pakistan. The development comes days after the meeting between US President Donald Trump and Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan in Oval Office at the White House.
No wonder both sides had declared that the meeting was highly successful. In January 1918 this same Trump had suspended all security related aids to Pakistan.
Pakistan received F-16 fighters from the US in the early 1980s, when Ronald Reagan was the US President and Zia was the military dictator of Pakistan. An F-16 aircraft cost at least $18.8 million per unit.
In April 2016, while Pakistan was about to receive 8 F-16 jets, US Congressman Matt Salmon had expressed apprehensions about their use against India, rather than terrorist camps.
India in 1985 had to purchase MIG29 and Mirage 2000 for defence against F16. Nowadays Indian made and upgraded MIG21 Bisons are good enough to take on the F16s. So obviously the existing F16s of Pakistan are going to be upgraded by the Americans to latest F21 ( F16 V) standards. Then they are going to get thrashed by the Indian TEJAS.
The American game plan gets revealed by the Pentagon delivery of the required certification to the Congress of this possible sale. The Pentagon, in its report, said “ the proposed sale of this support will not alter the basic military balance in the region.
The proposed sale will support the foreign policy and national security of the US by protecting American technology through the continued presence of US personnel that provide 24×7 end-use monitoring.”
“The State Department has made a determination approving a possible Foreign Military Sale to Pakistan for Technical Security Team (TST) in continued support of the F-16 program for an estimated cost of $125 million,” Defense Security Cooperation Agency said in a statement, according to PTI.
The statement also read: “Pakistan had requested a continuation of technical support services — US government and contractor technical and logistics support services — and other related elements of logistics support to assist in the oversight of operations in support of the Pakistan Peace Drive advanced F-16 program.”
“Implementation of this proposed sale will require the assignment of 60 contractor representatives to Pakistan to assist in the oversight of operations as part of the Peace Drive F-16 program,” the statement read.
So India too must help in this America sponsored Pakistan Peace Drive by enacting a new law in the Parliament. In case any country wants to give military aid to Pakistan or even sell weapons to it then it will have to face certain trade and other restrictions as decided by Government of India from time to time. The new law should be termed as SPECIAL LAW AGAINST AID TO PAKISTAN or SLAAP.
In case USA persists with its continued military aid to Pakistan then as a first step under SLAAP, the recently signed LEMOA and COMCOSA agreements should be put on hold and if required then just annulled.
