India may destroy Pak's nuclear weapons: Washington Post
Hindustan Times, October 21, 2001
US military strategists believe that India may seek to destroy Pakistani nuclear arsenal by a pre-emptive action if it appeared that the stockpile was about to fall into the hands of extremists.
"India, another nuclear power, would not stand idly by, if it appeared that the Pakistani nuclear arsenal were about to fall into the hands of extremist," the Washington Post quoted the strategists as saying.
They said India may seek to destroy Pakistan's nuclear stockpile by preemptive action which could provoke a new war on the subcontinent.
The US military has conducted more than 25 wargames involving a confrontation between India and Pakistan, and each has resulted in nuclear war, Air Force Colonel (retd) Sam Gardiner, an expert on strategic games, was quoted as saying.
"Having both US and India fighting Islamic extremists," warned Mackubin Owens, a strategist at the Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island, "would play into the hands of bin Laden. He could point out once again that this is a new crusade."
The next step that worries experts, said the Post, is the regional effect of turmoil in Pakistan. If its government fell, the experts fear, other Muslim Governments friendly to the US, such as Saudi Arabia and Egypt, might follow suit.
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