Brödtext: US Set To Invade Pakistan?
by Eric Margolis

The inauguration this week of Pakistan’s new president, Asif Ali Zardari, widower of the slain Benazir Bhutto, should have brought some hope and direction to embattled Pakistan It did not A sense of weary déjà vu hung over the event

Zardari’s first major policy statement was a vow to continue waging the so-called "war on terror" in northwest Pakistan Zardari’s choice of the Bush administration’s terminology was a clear message to Washington he intends to pursue the hated policies of disgraced former US-backed dictator, Pervez Musharraf Pakistan will continue to dance to Washington’s tune

In fact, Zardari seems set to inherit the ills of Musharraf’s failed regime Pakistan is bankrupt, with only 60 days of foreign exchange left to import fuel and food Half its 165 million people subsist on under $2 daily

Infusions of $112 billion in US aid since 2001, and tens of millions in covert payments, rented the grudging services of Pakistan’s armed and security forces, and halfhearted cooperation of its government

But 90% of Pakistanis oppose the US-led war in Afghanistan, which they, like most Europeans, see as a modern colonial war to secure US domination of Central Asia’s energy They despised Musharraf for sending 120,000 Pakistani troops to fight pro-Taliban Pashtun tribesmen in northwest Pakistan, killing thousands of civilians in the process, and for enabling the US war effort in Afghanistan

Now, Zardari, who was helped into power with Washington’s financial and political support, appears set on the same course Considering only 26% of voters support him, Zardari is heading for major trouble

Zardari’s refusal to reinstate justices of Pakistan’s supreme court purged by Musharraf is a slap in the face of democracy and further evidence of his fear of indictment over serious corruption accusations that dog him Widely known as "Mr 10%" from when he was minister of public contracts, Zardari denies any wrongdoing, insisting these charges were politically motivated

Plans by the US to launch ground attacks inside Pakistan’s Pashtun tribal zone (known as FATA) have ignited a new crisis Zardari has apparently approved more US raids against his own people But Pakistan’s powerful chief of staff, Gen Ashfaq Kiyani, says the nation’s 650,000-man armed forces will not tolerate US violation of its borders The stage is set for possible head-on clashes between Pakistani and US troops

Whether Canada will be drawn into fighting in Pakistan’s tribal areas is uncertain The Harper government’s former defense minister rashly called for Canadian troops to invade Pakistan Truck convoys, upon which the US and NATO depend for fuel, water, and munitions, face increasing attack by Pakistani pro-Taliban groups as they make their way up to the fabled Khyber Pass

A vicious cycle is now at play The US pays Pakistan’s armed forces to attack pro-Taliban tribesmen along the border, and aid the US war in Afghanistan US and Pakistani warplanes bomb Pashtun villages in FATA Furious Pashtuns retaliate by staging bombing attacks against government targets (aka "terrorism") The government and US launch more attacks as Pakistanis demand their government stop killing its own people Musharraf was detested as an American stooge If Zardari continues Mush’s failed policies, he will also meet the same fate

The US is about to kick yet another hornet’s nest by ground attacks on Pakistan Unable to crush growing national resistance to the US-led occupation of Afghanistan and secure planned pipeline routes, the frustrated Bush White House is launching a new conflict when it lacks the soldiers or money to subdue Afghanistan

Spreading the Afghan War into Pakistan is perilous and foolhardy It threatens to destabilize and tear apart fragile Pakistan, just as the US has dismembered Iraq A fragmented Pakistan could tempt India to intervene Both are nuclear armed

Asif Zardari is sitting atop a ticking bomb He needs some new thinking So do his western patrons, who must urgently end the futile Afghan War before it blows apart Pakistan

September 16, 2008

US faces the F-16s it supplied Pakistan
Brödtext: US faces the F-16s it supplied Pakistan

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/US ... n/articleshow/3482718.cms


The United States is suddenly faced with the uncomfortable scenario of confronting the very same weapons and military hardware, including F-16 fighter jets, it has armed Pakistan with for decades.


The unsavoury prospect of having to take a crack at the its one-time ally has surfaced most starkly in the skies over the Afghan-Pakistan border this weekend after the Pakistan Air Force deployed its US-supplied F-16s to challenge the violation of its airspace by US drones, and in one case, an airborne assault that landed US Navy Seals inside Pakistani territory.


The turnaround of Pakistan from an ally to a potential enemy has alarmed lawmakers, some of whom are now questioning the continued supply of arms to Islamabad. On Tuesday, a Democrat-controlled House Foreign Relations panel has scheduled a hearing whose snarky title -- ''Defeating al-Qaida's Air Force: Pakistan's F-16 Program in the Fight Against Terrorism'' == betrays the unease over the Bush Administration's relentless arming of Pakistan. Al-Qaida has no known air force.


Some lawmakers and analysts have long questioned the need for Washington to arm Pakistan with sophisticated fighter jets to counter Al-Qaida's and Taliban's diffused militants, many of whom are in Pakistan's towns and cities and are patronised by Islamabad's intelligence agencies. ''The panel will look at how the F-16 program fits into the broader US strategy in the fight against terrorism as well as into the overall US relationship with Pakistan,'' a notification from the sub-committee read.


The House sub-committee is lead by Gary Ackerman, a known critic of the administration's relentless pandering of Pakistan with military supplies. He and other lawmakers have questioned the administration's recent decisions to provide funding for mid-life upgrades to F-16s, especially after government audits said Pakistan has been using US military aid to bulk up its forces against India rather than use it for counterterrorism.


In July, the Bush administration sought to shift $226.5 million in US counterterrorism aid for the F-16 upgrades. Ackerman said the subcommittee will seek witness testimony about the ''complete scope of the F-16 program with Pakistan including the number of planes, updates made to existing planes, proposed armaments, schedule of delivery and source of payment.
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In addition, because Congress has previously provided Pakistan with significant amounts of Foreign Military Financing (FMF) for counterterrorism and law enforcement activities against al-Qaida and the Taliban, the subcommittee will seek testimony on how these planes contribute to Pakistan's efforts in the fight against terrorism and extremism, and how the use of additional FMF to pay for mid-life updates to Pakistan's existing F-16 fleet enhances those efforts. The subcommittee is also expected to examine what counterterrorism equipment or programs were foregone as a result of the July 16, 2008, reprogramming request.


Fearful of a Congressional squeeze on further F-16 supplies and upgrades, an unnamed senior Pakistani official in Washington briefed US and Pakistani journalists on Friday on the central role the jets were playing in the war on terror. Pakistan, he said, has flown nearly 100 missions during three weeks in August that produced some 500-550 Taliban casualties. But the PAF needed night-flying capability because the militants were regrouping in the night.


There is a great deal of skepticism about Pakistan using F-16s against militants, and the body count it keeps producing. Several accounts from the region describe friendly, fraternal ties between the Pakistani military and Taliban fighters.


On Sunday, the Pakistani media reported tribal sources as saying a PAF jets were seen patrolling the skies on the country's western borders with Afghanistan in the afternoon, soon after a US predator was seen flying in the area.
''Neither the CIA-operated Predator nor the Pakistani jet fighter took any offensive action as the two planes didn't encounter each other,'' a report in the Pakistani newspaper The News, said.


Pakistan's army chief Pervez Kiyani has vowed to defend the country against US incursions ''at all costs.
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