The U.S. Moving Ahead With Sale of Fighter Jets To Pakistan

The U.S. is being played like a fiddle by Pervez Musharraf.

Senator Joe Biden questions the sale in this AFP Report

Top senator hits US sale of F-16s to Pakistan

WASHINGTON (AFP) — A senior US senator lashed the administration of President George W. Bush Wednesday for its decision to sell F-16 fighter jets to Pakistan, calling it a sign of a "dangerously misguided" policy toward Islamabad.

The Pentagon announced late December 31 that it had approved the nearly 500 million dollar deal for 18 F-16s for Pakistan, with the deal awarded to Lockheed Martin Corp.
Senator Joseph Biden, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and a Democratic Party presidential hopeful, branded the move as "reckless," and said it contradicted new Congressional legislation designed to block such moves.
The decision to go ahead with the sale "shows how dangerously misguided President Bush's policy is," Biden said in a statement.

"How can the White House even think of green-lighting such a sale at such an incredibly sensitive time?" he said, referring to the political turmoil in Pakistan in the wake of the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, who hoped to become prime minister.
"This is the time we should be putting the pressure on the government and military to fully investigate the assassination of Benazir Bhutto and to hold free and fair elections -- not let them off the hook," Biden said.

Although the terms of the sale were not yet public, he noted that the recently passed Defense Appropriations bill "bars any assistance to Pakistan for weapons sales that are not for counter-terrorism purposes."

"If any US aid is involved, the sale is illegal," he said.
"If the sale involves no US assistance, it is technically legal but fundamentally misguided."

And why is the U.S. balking on the request for a UN investigation of the assasination of Benazir Bhutto? It gives the message to observers that the U.S. is more concerned with protecting their dictator, than finding the truth about the assassination of Bhutto. This will only serve to further alienate the U.S. in Pakistan and throughout the region, and it will weaken U.S. credibility even more.

It also shows that the U.S. uses the UN for its own political aims, and not for the purpose of finding the truth or improving the lives of people. After the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri in 2005, the U.S. led the way in calling for a UN investigation. In fact, Condoleeza Rice let it be known that no other investigation would be accepted. Why the aggressive calls for a UN investigation then? Because the U.S. was in the middle of its own dispute with Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad. The U.S. wanted to use the Hariri killing (for which Syria was suspected of being involved in) as a way to embarrass, isolate and pressure Syria. Part of the aim was to free Lebanon from Syria's control, after many decades of proxy rule from Damascus.

But when an even larger figure like Bhutto is assasinated, the U.S. doesn't even mention a UN investigation. They say they will play along with an investigation led by Musharraf, who has already proven that he can't be trusted to look into the murder. So, in other words, the U.S. is sending the message that when it's Washington's dictator, then everything is alright. No impartial, independent UN investigation is needed. The U.S. has decided that in the interest of keeping things quiet in Pakistan, it is better to sweep the Bhutto death under the rug in an effort to keep damaging information from getting out. By all accounts, it doesn't appear that Bhutto's security was as tight as it should have been. Although she probably shoulders blame for not taking proper precautions. But hiding the truth may only cause the situation to boil hotter over time, leading to more speculation and eventually more unrest.

The U.S. seems willing to do anything to protect the current dictatorship.

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See A Previous Post with An Iran/Pakistan Comparison

Read an older analysis of the F-16 Sale, and See How BushCo. and the Military Industrial Complex is playing India and Pakistan against one another in order to hype tensions and create a market to then sell hardware to both Countries. A huge opportunity for U.S. Defense Contractors.