Does any one see a problem with this?

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Administration to sell F-16s to Pakistan.

"The sale of F-16s will not change the overall balance of power" between Pakistan and India, a senior administration official said of the decision. India's prime minister expressed "great disappointment," a spokesman in New Delhi said.

Washington blocked sales of F-16s to Pakistan in 1990 as a sanction against its nuclear program.

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Does any one see a problem with selling advanced weapon systems to a country with nuclear capabilities that has tense relations with another country with nuclear capabilities? Wouldn't F16s be an ideal launching platform to deliver nukes to a neighboring country?

Didn't Pakistan have problems with supplying nuclear technology to terrorists a while back?

Some how this move doesn't make me feel "safer".
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[sam h]

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Wouldn't F16s be an ideal launching platform to deliver nukes to a neighboring country?

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No.

[cardcounter0]

Okay. I thought they had sophisticated radar evasion systems, capable of long flights, ability to outrun and outshoot just about any other plane in the sky, and could deliver thousand pound payloads to targets. Must have the F16 confused with some other fighter/bomber aircraft.
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[sam h]

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Okay. I thought they had sophisticated radar evasion systems, capable of long flights, ability to outrun and outshoot just about any other plane in the sky, and could deliver thousand pound payloads to targets. Must have the F16 confused with some other fighter/bomber aircraft.

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That still doesn't make them an ideal launching platform. Intermediate range missiles are better and they already have those. Plus they have other F16s and Mirages anyway. Basically, Pakistan is already capable of conducting a large nuclear strike against India and selling them a few more F16s won't change anything.

[Felix_Nietsche]

...and yes you are confused.

[Zeno]

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Basically, Pakistan is already capable of conducting a large nuclear strike against India and selling them a few more F16s won't change anything.

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Indeed, and this bodes well. This is all part of Zeno's World Domination Enterprises that I have posted about before and I am happy to see things moving towards fruition. India and Pakistan should be at each other’s throats in a big way by decades end. Let the mushroom clouds fill the sky.

Le Misanthrope

[ACPlayer]

We need a new NPT -- Nuke Proliferation Treaty.

Nukes for all.

[Chris Alger]

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selling them a few more F16s won't change anything

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It won't change much in the balance of terror between Pakistan and India, but poor countries don't spend a billion dollars on fighters for no reason. One would think that it would at least further Pakistan's ability to wage war, including against its own population.

It also affects U.S. foreign policy by sending a signal to actual and potential "allies" about the sort of regime the U.S. hopes to foster and sustain in the Middle East and Central Asia. Specifically,

1. It rewards Pakistan for buying uranium hexaflouride (which can be enriched into weapons-grade uranium) from North Korea.

2. It rewards Pakistan for selling the same uranium hexaflouride to the formerly State Dept.-designated terrorist state of Libya.

3. It rewards Pakistan for pardoning Abdel Qadeer Khan, the top Pakistani nuclear scientist who ran network that sold nuclear weapons technology to Libya.

4. It rewards Pakistan for retaining laws that allow honor killers of women to go unpunished (1200 women killed last year).

5. It rewards Pakistan for ongoing human rights violations ever since Musharrif assumed power, such as torturing and murdering farmers who refused to cede their land rights to the army, widespread arbitrary arrest and detention, harrassment and intimidation of the press, and a general lack of due process and democratic norms.

In short, it proves that rhetoric about supporting democracy or human rights continues to eclipsed by more hard-nosed concerns about developing symbiotic relations with geopolitically important states, regardless of whether those regimes give short shrift to the interests of their populations, Americans or the world at large. As Rice recently told Pakistani TV, the U.S. "will remain committed to this relationship for the long term" and be a friend of Pakistan "for life."

I'm not sure that the F-16's wouldn't be such a good platform. Rep. Sam Johnson (R. Tex) recently told a gathering that "I can fly and F-15, put two nukes on [Syria], and I'll make one pass. We won't have to worry about Syria anymore." Although he later conceded that he was just joking about exterminating all the Syrians. (From this month's American Prospect).

[sam h]

Chris,

I would say that selling Pakistan F-16s rewards them despite all those reasons you listed, which is a bit different than saying it rewards them for those reasons, an assertion I don't think is really true.

I don't think the sale is going to suddenly open anybody's eyes to American hypocrisy and the distance between our rhetoric and our actions when dealing with certain strategically important regimes. That our support of "freedom and democracy" in the middle east is more bark than bite has been obvious for a long time. Nor do I think this one arms sale is a very important policy issue in the larger scheme of things.

[Felix_Nietsche]

Your right about Pakistan's role in spreading nuclear weapons technology.
Pakistan falls under the category: "with friends like these, who needs enemies".

The original discussion was on the F16, was its ability to alter Pakistan's ability to wage a nuclear war. Selling F16s (export versions) to Pakistan will have little or no effect in Pakistan's nuclear capabilities.

F16s WILL improved Pakistan's ability to wage a conventional war.
F16s are excellent fighters and very economical. I believe India already has F16's, so Pakistan having F16s will even the balance of air power between India and Pakistan (and bring jobs to Ft.Worth, Tx).