pakistan's strategic nuclear assets: why are they a thorn in the side of so many?

8/9/2019 Pakistan's Strategic Nuclear Assets: Why Are They a Thorn in the Side of So Many?

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"The West simply

used Pakistans

bomb to make Islam

and aggression

synonymous."

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Pakistan's Strategic Nuclear Assets: Why are they a thorn in the side of

so many?By Shahid R. Siddiqi. Axis of LogicAxis of Logic

Saturday, Jan 2, 2010

"Pakistan's nuclear facilities are secure"

January 2, 2009. Axis of Logic - When India exploded its first nuclear device in 1974,culminating a program launched as far back as 1951, Western powers only reacted with customary

show of concern. But on the other hand, Pakistans nuclear program, initiated in response to theIndian acquisition of nuclear weapons, evoked immediate and serious concern from the sameWestern powers. This discriminatory attitude has since persisted. Pakistan has remained underpressure from the US-led lobby to scrap its program while the Indians remained uncensored.

India has often tried to justify its nuclear program as a counter to the Chinese threat. This ispreposterous. China has shown no belligerency towards India. The war of 1962 resulted from Indiasarrogance in refusing to amicably settle a boundary dispute with China, just as it has done withPakistan. And if China was such a big threat why have other countries of the region not complainedor scrambled to seek nuclear umbrellas?

Bhutto and the "religious bomb"

That Western attitude was discriminatory can also be seen by the religiouscolor it gave to Pakistans bomb by calling it an Islamic bomb.

One has never heard of the Israeli bomb being called a Jewish Bomb, orthe Indian bomb a Hindu Bomb, or the American and British bomb a

Christian Bomb or the Soviet bomb a Communist (or an Atheist) Bomb.The West simply used Pakistans bomb to make Islam and aggressionsynonymous, although Pakistans bomb was merely for defensive purposesand was not even remotely associated with Islam.

With India going nuclear soon after playing a crucial role in dismembering Pakistan in 1971 andenjoying an overwhelming conventional military superiority over Pakistan (in the ratio 4:1) aresource-strapped Pakistan was pushed to the wall. Left with no choice but to develop a nucleardeterrent to create a balance of power and ward off Indian threat, Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto

declared: Pakistanis will eat grass but make a nuclear bomb. And sure enough, they did it. Butsoon both he and the nuclear program were to become non-grata. Amid intense pressure, sanctionsand vilification campaign, Henry Kissinger personally delivered to a defiant Bhutto the Americanthreat: give up your nuclear program or else we will make a horrible example of you."

And a horrible example was made of Bhutto for his defiance. Bhutto signed Pakistans nuclearprogram with his blood to enable Pakistan to become the 7th nuclear power in the world, forcing


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Pakistan obstructs

quest for dominion

by India and Israel.

"Pakistan reminded

the Israelis that

Pakistan was no Iraq

and that the

Pakistan Air Force

was no Iraqi Air

Force."

India to shun belligerency. Although there has never been real peace in South Asia, at least therehas been no war since 1971.

Pakistan's nuclear program: a deterrent to Indo-Israeli dominion

Ignoring its perspective on acquisition of strategic assets, Pakistans Western friends refused toadmit it to their exclusive nuclear club, pressuring it to give up nuclear ambitions instead. However,expediency made them look the other way when it suited their purpose. In 1980s and post 9/11when Pakistan was needed to play a key role in Afghanistan as the front line state, the Americanspotlights on its nuclear program were switched off.

But Pakistans nuclear program remained under threat from the foes -India and Israel, who felt their interests were threatened. In collusion,both of them missed no opportunity to directly or indirectly malignPakistans nuclear program or subvert it. Both countries having similargeo-strategic interests in their respective regions, see Pakistan as anobstacle to their designs.

India sees Pakistan as an unnatural creation which, having been carved out of its body, now refusesto submit to its diktat and obstructs its quest for unchallenged domination of South Asia and theIndian Ocean region.

Israel looks at Pakistans military prowess and its nukes as indirectly strengthening the hands ofArab states with which it has remained in a state of conflict and which it has continued to terrorizeall these years. It is conscious that several Arab states look up to Pakistan for military support whenfaced with external threat to their security that comes mainly from Israel. It is unsettling for Israel

to see such a state to be in possession of nuclear weapons.

Israel also cannot overlook the fact that Pakistan Air Force pilots, when flying mostly Russianaircraft, surprised the Israeli Air Force and shot down several relatively superior Israeli jets in aircombat in the 1973 Arab Israel war. They shattered the myth of the invincibility of Israeli pilots whobelieved themselves to be too superior in skill and technology. These Pakistani pilots happened tobe assigned to Jordanian, Syrian and Iraqi air forces on training missions when the war broke outand they inconspicuously joined the operations.

The foiled Israeli plan to bomb Kahuta

Having successfully bombed and destroyed the Iraqi nuclear reactor in 1981, Israelis wereencouraged to launch a similar attack on Kahuta, a village to the east of Islamabad where Pakistansnascent nuclear research program was located. In collaboration with India, the Israelis made plansfor this mission in early 1980s. Using satellite pictures and intelligence information provided by the

CIA, they reportedly built a full-scale mock-up of Kahuta facility in the southern Negev Desert andpilots of F-16 and F-15 squadrons went through mock attack exercises.

According to the story published in London by The Asian Age citing revelations by journalists AdrianLevy and Catherine Scott-Clark in their bookDeception: Pakistan, the US and the Global WeaponsConspiracy, the Israeli Air Force planned to launch an air attack on Kahuta in mid 1980s fromJamnagar airfield in Gujarat (India) and land and refuel at a base in northern India. The book claimsthat in March 1984, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi signed off (on) the Israeli-led operation, bringingIndia, Pakistan and Israel to within a hairs breadth of a nuclear conflagration.

Another report claims that Israel had planned to launch an air strike directly out of Israel. Aftermidway and midair refueling, Israeli warplanes were to shoot down a commercial airlines flight overthe Indian Ocean that routinely flew into Islamabad early morning. The Israelis would have flown ina tight formation to appear as one large aircraft on radar screens preventing detection. Using thedrowned airliners call sign they would have entered Islamabads air space, knocked out Kahuta andflown on to land in Jammu, an Indian airbase, to refuel and make an exit.

Reliable reports say that in mid 1980s this mission was actually launchedone night. But the Israelis were in for a big surprise. They discoveredthat Pakistan Air Force had already sounded an alert and had taken tothe skies in anticipation of this attack. The Indo-Israeli mission had to behurriedly called off.

Pakistan reminded the Israelis that Pakistan was no Iraq and thatPakistan Air Force was no Iraqi Air Force. Using indirect channels,Pakistan is reported to have conveyed that an attack on Kahuta wouldforce Pakistan to lay waste to Dimona, Israels nuclear reactor in theNegev Desert. Pakistan drew up contingency plans for retaliatory strikeon Dimona in case of any future Israeli misadventure. India was also warned that Islamabad wouldattack Trombay if its facilities in Kahuta were hit.

The above quoted book claims that Prime Minister Indira Gandhi eventually aborted the operationdespite protests from military planners in New Delhi and Jerusalem.

This Indo-Israeli plan was also confirmed by a paper published by the Australian Institute forNational Strategic Studies. It stated,


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Israeli interest in destroying Pakistans Kahuta reactor to scuttle the 'Islamic bomb' wasblocked by India's refusal to grant landing and refueling rights to Israeli warplanes in 1982.

Clearly India wanted to see Kahuta gone but did not want to face retaliation against its own nuclearfacilities at the hands of Pakistan Air Force. Israel, on its part wanted this to be a joint Indo-Israelistrike so that Israel alone would not be held responsible.

The Reagan administration also showed reluctance to support the plan as any distraction onPakistans part at that juncture would have hurt American interests in Afghanistan where Pakistanwas engaged as key US ally against the Soviets.

The Propaganda Campaign

Although the two countries had to give up plans to hit Kahuta, they continued their diatribe againstPakistans nuclear program through an organized propaganda campaign which has been acceleratedtoday. Israel used its clout over the American political establishment and the Western media tocreate hysteria. India also worked extensively to promote paranoia. Pakistans program was brandedas unsafe, insecure and a threat to peace, although it is technically more sound, much safer andmore secure than that of India and has ensured absence of war in the region.

Use of terrorists to destabilize Pakistan

The US invasion of Afghanistan provided another opening for the Indo-Israeli nexus to targetPakistans strategic assets. This time the strategy was to present Pakistan as an unstable state,incapable of defending itself against religious extremist insurgents, creating the specter of nuclearassets falling into their hands in Islamabad. This was achieved by creating a proxy organization -

Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in Pak-Afghan border areas where they recruited rogue elementsand spread chaos to destabilize Pakistan through terrorism. Suggestions were floated that in view ofthe possibility of Pakistan succumbing to extremists, its nuclear assets should be disabled, seized orforcibly taken out by the US. Alternatively, an international agency should take them over for safekeeping.

Pakistan has paid a high price in terms of civilian and military casualties but it has foiled theconspiracy and thwarted the threat. As a result of operations by Pakistan Army in Swat, SouthWaziristan and other areas in FATA, TTP terrorists have either been eliminated or are on the run.With the insurgency crushed, peace is returning to these former havens of terrorism.

Pakistan has made it clear that it would act decisively against any attempt by any quarter to seizeits nuclear assets. The resulting situation would be disastrous as it could send South Asia up inflames.

The Indo-Israeli nexus is losing the initiative. But as long as the American umbrella is not denied,Afghanistan will remain a playground for these mischief mongers. It is now up to the US to walk itstalk if it is sincere about its claim that it wants to see a secure and stable Pakistan. It must put anend to conspiracies to destabilize Pakistan.

Read his bio and more analyses and essays byAxis of Logic Columnist, Shahid R. Siddiqi

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pakistan's strategic nuclear assets: why are they a thorn in the side of so many?

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