nuclear-news

Pakistan’s nuclear arms race

Pakistan’s hot nuclear greenhouse, THE HINDU PRAVEEN SWAMI, 4 Nov 12,  The world’s fastest growing arsenal is being produced not just because of the fear of India but a strategic paranoia exacerbated by existential anxieties…… ‘CIVILISATIONAL’
DIFFERENCE

In 1972, his nation torn apart by the force of Indian arms, now Prime
Minister Bhutto decided no cost was too high to pay. His concerns were
focussed, though, on something far larger than India — his nation’s
civilisational destiny. From the death row cell to which he was
eventually despatched, Bhutto wrote: “the Christian, Jewish and Hindu
civilisations have this capability. The Communist powers also possess
it. Only the Islamic civilisation is without it.”

The programme Dr. Khan seeded has grown into an extraordinary nuclear
weapons greenhouse: Pakistan now has the fastest-growing arsenal in
the world, with 90-110 warheads, up from 65-80 in 2008 and ahead of
India’s 60-100. It has refused to sign the Fissile Material Cut-Off
Treaty, which seeks to cap global weapons stockpiles……
Pakistan’s nuclear pursuit is not entirely severed from reason.
India’s smaller arsenal gives it the capacity to annihilate Pakistan;
Pakistan needs more warheads to inflict proportionate damage.
Islamabad fears, moreover, that New Delhi might render its warheads
ineffective through pre-emptive strikes, or eventually develop
anti-ballistic missile defences. The Pakistan army is deeply concerned
about its growing asymmetry with India’s armed forces.

Brian Cloughey, a sympathetic historian of the Pakistan army, has
suggested that if “India’s two armour-heavy mechanized infantry strike
corps managed to penetrate to the line joining
Gujranwala-Multan-Sukkur and to the outskirts of Hyderabad in the
south, then it is likely Pakistan would have to accept defeat or
employ nuclear weapons.”

Lieutenant Colonel Syed Akhtar Husain Shah, writing in a Pakistan army
publication in 1994, was already noting that in future wars, the
“probability of the application of nuclear devices at the strategic
and tactical level will be high. These strikes may be pre-emptive or
reactionary, at any stage of the battle.” Much of Islamabad’s recent
nuclear pursuit has been focussed on providing it the nuclear teeth
needed to fight just such a war — for example by seeking to arm the
60-km range Hatf9 missile with a nuclear warhead.

Experts aren’t convinced, however, that more tactical nuclear weapons
are making Pakistan more secure. In a 2010 paper, A.H. Nayyar and Zia
Mian argued that the use of tactical nuclear weapons would be of
little use if “Indian armed forces had prepared for a nuclear attack
and were able to rapidly disperse.” In addition, using tactical
weapons even on Pakistan’s own soil could provoke retaliation —
something India’s Cabinet made clear, in a 2003 statement, it would be
prepared to do……..
http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/pakistans-hot-nuclear-greenhouse/article4064962.ece?homepage=true

November 5, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Pakistan, weapons and war