Author: Chidandnd Rajghatta, TNN
Publication: The Times of India
Date: May 18, 2009.
URL: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/World/US-unwittingly-aiding-Pak-N-program-/articleshow/4546454.cms
Are American lawmakers and the Obama administration
unintentionally funding a runaway Pakistani nuclear weapons program that may
not only mean a mortal danger to the United States in the long run, but pose
a more immediate existential threat to India?
Influential American commentators and media
outlets are now starting to question what they see as Washington's indirect
bankrolling of Pakistan's nuclear program through massive infusion of aid,
even as US President Obama is insisting that he is confident Islamabad won't
allow its nuclear assets to fall into extremist hands.
News of Islamabad's accelerated nuclear weapons
program, exposed by US satellite imagery and reported in this paper last Saturday,
is being scrutinized in the light of the administration-backed Congress move
to pump billions of dollars of US aid into Pakistan. Confirmation last week
by US' highest military official, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral
Mike Mullen, that Pakistan is indeed ramping up its weapons program, had added
a sense of urgency to the review, particularly since the aid package is being
finalized this week.
On Monday, the New York Times reported that
members of Congress have been told in confidential briefings that Pakistan
is rapidly adding to its nuclear arsenal, ''raising questions on Capitol Hill
about whether billions of dollars in proposed military aid might be diverted
to Pakistan's nuclear program.''
Indian officials have long maintained in private
that money being fungible, any unconditional aid to Pakistan would result
in the unstable country pumping more domestic resources into its bloated military,
including into its nuclear weapons program. But the argument has found little
traction in Washington, and the Indians have not pressed the argument, apprehensive
that they will be seen as a spoiler who is blocking aid to Pakistan.
As a result, the administration has persuaded
law-makers to either withdraw or dilute tough conditions they had proposed
for disbursal of the five-year $ 7.5 billion aid, including calling the country's
nuclear weapons program to account, access to its nuclear smuggler A Q Khan,
and ending the policy of terrorism towards India.
But now, Pakistan's drive to spend heavily
on new nuclear arms has been a source of growing concern to some officials
even inside the Obama administration, NYT said, because the country is producing
more nuclear material at a time when Washington is increasingly focused on
trying to assure the security of an arsenal of 80 to 100 weapons so that they
will never fall into the hands of Islamic insurgents.
''The billions in new proposed American aid,
officials acknowledge, could free other money for Pakistan's nuclear infrastructure,
at a time when Pakistani officials have expressed concern that their nuclear
program is facing a budget crunch for the first time, worsened by the global
economic downturn,'' the paper said in a front-page story.
Pakistan ''has more terrorists per square
mile than anyplace else on earth, and it has a nuclear weapons program that
is growing faster than anyplace else on earth,'' it quoted Bruce Riedel, the
former White House official who conducted President Obama's Af-Pak policy
review as saying.
But President Obama himself seems confident
enough that the US, through the Pakistani military, had a handle on the country's
nuclear weapons to the extent it will not fall into extremist hands. He has
asserted this in several statements, and over the weekend, he proffered the
view again in a Newsweek interview.
Asked if he was willing to keep the option
alive to have American troops secure Pakistan's nuclear weapons if the country
gets less stable, Obama said, ''I don't want to engage in hypotheticals around
Pakistan, other than to say we have confidence that Pakistan's nuclear arsenal
is safe; that the Pakistani military is equipped to prevent extremists from
taking over those arsenals.''
Not everyone is as sanguine. Calls to cap
and roll back Pakistan's nuclear assets, if not extricate it outright, are
growing.
''In exchange for a hefty aid package, (Pakistan,
Iran, and North Korea) should allow the internationally supervised destruction
of any and all nuclear weapons and facilities, along with ongoing foolproof
inspections, or we will destroy them together with any retaliatory capabilities
we deem necessary,'' was the message Conservative commentator Roger Chapin
of the organisation Make America Safe, wanted Washington to send out.
But Obama said in the Newsweek interview that
while as commander in chief, he has to consider all options, ''I think that
Pakistan's sovereignty has to be respected.''
Chapin's argument: ''Respecting the so-called
sovereign rights of nations cannot even be a consideration when they pose
a menace to our national security. Nor can Pakistan's professed need to be
able to counter India's nuclear capabilities, especially since India threatens
no one.''
