Defiant Pakistan threatens to use nuke

Yahoo News India ^ | 05.30.02 | Press Trust of India

[callisto]

United Nations, May 30 (PTI) Pakistan has threatened to use nuclear weapons even if India stuck to conventional arms in any conflict, asserting that it has never subscribed to "no-first-use" of atomic weapons and that ruling out their use would give New Delhi a "license to kill."

"India should not have the license to kill with conventional weapons while Pakistan's hands are tied regarding other means to defend itself," said its new ambassador to the United Nations Munir Akram.

The highly bellicose and provocative statements by Akram on the second day on the job yesterday surprised diplomats and officials at the United Nations who declined to make an immediate comment.

Pakistan, he said, has to rely on the "means it possessed to deter Indian aggression" and would not "neutralise" that deterrence by any doctrine of "no-first-use."

To a question at his first news conference after taking over the job, Akram said any action by India across the border, any aerial attack on Pakistani territory and its assets, and any action to economically strangle it would be "viewed" as aggression and would be "responded to by Pakistan."

Noting that both India and Pakistan possessed nuclear weapons, he said while that should instill restraint on both sides, "it does not seem to do so on the Indian side."

The launching of a sharp attack less than 48 hours after taking over, some diplomats believe, could mean that Pakistan plans to use the United Nations for anti-Indian propaganda.

Akram, who had been his country's ambassador to the UN at Geneva, is known for his rhetoric against India and in previous years had also made highly provocative statements on Kashmir during debates whether the occasion demanded or not.

Pakistan, Akram claimed, believed in "no-first-use of force." That was the reason, he said, that Islamabad had offered non-aggression pact to New Delhi but India had rejected it.

"If India reserved the right to use conventional weapons, how could Pakistan - a weaker power-be expected to rule out all means of deterrence."

The United Nations Charter, the Pakistani ambassador said, prohibited the use of force and India should be committed to "non-use-of-force".

Akarm said the Security Council should address the issues of tensions between India and Pakistan which "constituted a threat to international peace and security."

"Whenever there is a threat of use of force against a member state and a threat to international peace and security, there is an obligation for the Council to address that situation," he told the news conference

[The Duke]

This is starting to shape up as the perfect test bed for the concept of nuclear deterrance. Surely there can be no two bigger hotheads than these two countries.

I say let's make a little popcorn and sit on the sidelines and see what happens.

[Cicero5]

Yeah, great idea, except for the fact that if these two nations of "hotheads" drop a nuke -- the fallout will be here in about a week. So think about it, water supplies, crops, all possibly contaminated. The people most at risk to thyroid poisoning are the young...

What else? Oil supplies tighten, the price sky rockets, gasoline shortages, etc. I could go on for hours but I have to do some work.

You don't want this to happen, believe me.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

The Paki's are doing everything they can to stop an attack by India. We'll see if India calls their bluff.

[TomGuy]

[callisto]

I saw this yesterday. You may like it.

[BearCub]

Yeah, great idea, except for the fact that if these two nations of "hotheads" drop a nuke -- the fallout will be here in about a week. So think about it, water supplies, crops, all possibly contaminated. The people most at risk to thyroid poisoning are the young...

Wouldn't be any worse than all the bombs we set off in the Nevada desert in the 50s.

[Paul C. Jesup]

You have been listening to too much anti-nuke propaganda.

Unless they use cobalt encased nukes, most, if not all of the fallout will only be in south Asia.

[Darth Sidious]

Unless they use cobalt encased nukes, most, if not all of the fallout will only be in south Asia.

That was the same nuke from "Beneath The Planet Of The Apes"!

All thing bright and beautiful,
All creatures great and small,
All things wise and wonderful,
The good Bomb made us all.

[mhking]

Pakistan has threatened to use nuclear weapons even if India stuck to conventional arms in any conflict, asserting that it has never subscribed to "no-first-use" of atomic weapons and that ruling out their use would give New Delhi a "license to kill."

That's it, all bets are off, now.

[tictoc]

Time to go to the pharmacy and get iodine tablets.

[cake_crumb]

"The launching of a sharp attack less than 48 hours after taking over, some diplomats believe, could mean that Pakistan plans to use the United Nations for anti-Indian propaganda."

Arabs using the UN to spread propaganda???? Gee....what a novel idea! WOW, how amazing no other Arabs have thought of that sooner!! </SARCASM>

I am still hoping the diplomatic situation won't progress beyond the sabre rattling stage, but I wonder...

Also, Pakistan is obviously using their ambassador to trick India into doing a preemptive nuke...so Pakistan's terrorist networks all over the world will have "proof" that India is the aggressor.

Also, I'll be looking for a terrorist-appeasing UN resolution condemning India as the bad guy in Kashmir, because the UN pansies are so scared of an Islamic nuclear threat that they probably all have PUDDLES under their chairs.

[CJ Wolf]

over the counter?

[backhoe]

The India-Pakistani Conflict... some background information-

[Cultural Jihad]

I saw this yesterday. You may like it.

You can't honestly compare the fight over dirt in Kashmir between India and Pakistan with the Cold War's fight over freedom versus communism.

[callisto]

Did you by chance catch Greta Van Sustern's show on Fox last night? She asked Mansoon Ijaz (sp?)what he was hearing from people he knows in Pakistan and had to interupt him very abruptly, it appeared she didn't like his answer. He stated that the people were very pleased with the current state of events and it sounded like he was implying that they were elated at the prospect of war with India before she rudely cut him off. He said Al Qaeda was in the Pak. section of Kasmir and were the ones crossing the LOC into Indian-controlled Kasmir. This is just a paraphrase and I was starting to drift off to sleep, but maybe someone else remembers exactly what he was saying.

[DonQ]

It is interesting that it's a Moslem nation threatening to make first use of nuclear weapons against non-nuclear weapons. If Israel had made such a threat I suppose the UN and the entire Moslem world would have denounced it instantly.

I have a slightly different attitude about the current stage of the India-Pakistan conflict than some other people on this thread. I believe that Pakistan is parlaying its situation as the necessary base of the US anti-Taliban operation to bully India. Since the US forces arrived in Pakistan, Pakistan has made several minor attacks on India and then essentially hidden behind its patron the US. Pakistan may feel that since it currently holds the real estate that the US needs for its anti-Taliban agenda, that the US will not only indulge Pakistani belligerence against India but maybe help swat India down rather than let Indian retaliation interfere with US operations.

[cake_crumb]

"What else? Oil supplies tighten, the price sky rockets, gasoline shortages, etc."

I wish the government wasn't so anal retentive agout ethanol.

[callisto]

Of course not. I didn't draw the cartoon. But I can see how others in the world may see some reality to it. The other countries in the world did stand by for many years wondering if the US or Russia would drop a nuke on each other. I think that is what the cartoonist was trying to say.

[Cultural Jihad]

Thanks for the correction. I meant to address the concern to the alleged artist rather than to you.