Bullying Pakistan over its safest nuclear programme
It is very sickening and outrageous to question Pakistan’s nuclear programme by the President of a superpower after decades of its credibility as the most secure and safest nuclear programme in the world.
There has never been any evidence in the evolutionary history of Pakistan’s nuclear programme, that it was unsafe, insecure or caused any proliferation.
Similarly, there has been no evidence of stealing the nuclear material either during its evolutionary phases or in the post 1998, after its overt declaration through half a dozen nuclear explosions.
The statement of US President, Mr Joe Biden that Pakistan may be “one of the most dangerous nations in the world” as the country has “nuclear weapons without any cohesion” is irresponsible, out of place and discriminatory.
The Government of Pakistan has rejected the statement and asked for an explanation in a diplomatic manner.
Nevertheless, the people of Pakistan are highly annoyed over the insulting statement of the US President at a time when Pakistan is on its way to rebuild its odd relationship with the United States.
The Pakistani Foreign Minister and Army Chief have just concluded their visits to the US. Both had in-depth meetings with top US officials.
Analyzing the history of nuclear weapons, the United States is considered to be the initiator of this deadly weapons’ programme and more so the deadliest use of the nuclear weapons against a sovereign state (Japan) in 1945.
Indeed, on August 6, 1945 and August 9, 1945 the US used the weapon killing hundreds of thousands of civilians in the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
These bombings killed between 129,000 and 226,000 people who had nothing to do with the war.
So far this is the only use of nuclear weapons in the history of human beings. The deadliest effects of these attacks were felt decades after these attacks and paralyzed and incapacitated millions of Japanese for years in Japan.
In this regard, the United States has been the most dangerous state in the world with respect to development and use of its nuclear programme.
Out of seven declared nuclear weapon states, it was the US which misused its nuclear weapon against an innocent population at a time Japan had already decided to surrender in the conclusive stages of World-War-II.
Debating the aspects of proliferation, the US alone is responsible for the proliferation of the nuclear weapons, since the Manhattan Project for the development of nuclear weapons was conceived and established by the US, though it is said that the United Kingdom and Canada were supportive to it.
It was a research and development programme for the manufacture of nuclear weapons during World War-II.
The project was headed by US Army Major General Leslie Groves (US Army Corps of Engineers).
A nuclear physicist Robert Oppenheimer was the Director of the Los Alamos Laboratory that designed the actual bombs.
The military component of the project was designated the Manhattan District as its first headquarters were in Manhattan.
All proliferation of the nuclear weapons to the former Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, France and elsewhere in the world took place from this project.
This means that the US is the basic proliferator of all nuclear weapons besides the most dangerous state which used the nuclear weapons against humanity, an unforgivable crime against humanity.
As per the declassified documents of the US State Department and Pentagon, Washington deployed and stockpiled over 7000 nuclear devices all along Western Europe during critical stages of the cold war.
Even the western European Allies of US, especially West Germany and Italy, protested US over its deployment and stockpiling of the nuclear weapons which were aimed to provoke and use against the former Soviet Union in line with what was done in Japan in August 1945.
Under the umbrella of the Military Alliance; North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) these nuclear weapons could be used against the Soviet Union.
“In emergency conditions, the U.S. CINCEUR [Commander in Chief European Command] could order the immediate use of the weapons by NATO.
”Otherwise, in normal circumstances, use of the weapons required the consent of NATO’s top policymaking body, the North Atlantic Council.
“But the U.S. President had a controlling voice in decisions to use American nuclear weapons.
Thus, President Eisenhower’s “emergency actions pouch” (later known as the “football”) would include a directive authorizing the transfer of nuclear weapons to NATO forces.
” This deployment provoked Moscow to shift some of its tactical nuclear weapons to Cuba, a Soviet ally and a staunch Communist country which caused the Cuban Missile Crisis-1962.
The Cuban Missile Crisis (also known as the October Crisis of 1962) created a war-like situation between the US and the then Soviet Union.
The crisis continued for 35-days ringing bells for World-War-III. It was a situation of Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) between the US and USSR which could have engulfed entire humanity.
The United States alone is considered responsible for creating such a situation, since it initially deployed nuclear weapons in Western European states against the Soviet Union.
Indeed, it is evidence of the US being the most dangerous nuclear weapon state in the world.
Despite so much evidence of the US being the most dangerous and irresponsible nuclear state, should it still question the peaceful nuclear programme of Pakistan while declaring it as the most dangerous state?
With an excellent command and control system, Pakistan’s nuclear programme is the safest in the world.
By raising such concerns over the nuclear programme of Pakistan, the US may be asking Pakistan to do something else for its (US) strategic gain in the region. Pak-China friendship really bothers Washington ever since the US failed in Afghanistan.
Analyzing the track record of Pak-US relationship, let’s not give too many concessions to the US at the cost of Pakistani national interests and its sovereignty.
— The writer is Professor of Politics and IR at International Islamic University, Islamabad.
