Thursday's decision to sell up to eight F-16 fighter jets to Pakistan is
irresponsible and misguided on the part of the United States, and terribly
damaging to the United States' developing relationship with the world's most
populous democracy, India.  Although the United States no doubt intends this
transfer of war materiel to bolster its strange-bedfellows alliance with
Pakistan in the so-called 'war on terror', the reality is that Pakistan itself
remains one of the world's most notorious state sponsors of terrorism.  It's
widely acknowledged that a preponderance of evidence indicates that Pakistan's
ISI has covertly financed and trained Lashkar-e-Taiba and similar terror
outfits, the bloody consequences of which have been suffered not by the
Americans but by neighbouring India.  Along with such covert force, Pakistan
supports overt aggression: its border troops frequently violate the cease-fire
in occupied Kashmir.  The United States' supplying of war materiel to a state
sponsor of terrorism makes the United States itself -- by its own rhetoric
and policy -- criminal and culpable for that state's acts of terrorism.

Although India's newer Su-30 MKI fighter aeroplanes are a match for the F-16
(as amply demonstrated by Indian pilots in joint military exercises with the
United States), the fact remains that much of India's anticipated Su-30 fleet
remains on order and undelivered, leaving India still partially dependent on
the older MiG-29.  The F-16 in contrast to the MiG-29 has longer range and
endurance, more accurate avionics and navigation, more effective cockpit
displays for pilot situational awareness and more responsive, fly-by-wire
controls, and also much more effective combat performance beyond visual range:
an F-16 is well capable of shooting down a MiG-29 before the pilots can even
glimpse each other.  By supplying Pakistan, a known state sponsor of terrorism
and a frequent covert and overt aggressor within South Asia, with planes
capable of downing a significant segment of the air force of its peaceful
neighbour, the United States would be violating the spirit of its own
anti-terror rhetoric and would deserve to be held responsible for all
potential and any actual acts of aggression committed with these planes.

The Obama government having this past week approved the sale of these planes to
Pakistan, an act of Congress now is the only way of preventing this event from
coming to pass.  I urge you to act to prevent the sale of F-16's, and all other
general-purpose war materiel, to Pakistan.