A bipartisan group of legislators is asking colleagues in Congress to oppose the sale of F-16 aircraft to Pakistan and urge President George Bush not to go ahead with it.

Though Congress is in recess, Congressman Gary Ackerman (D-NY) and Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fl) began circulating a letter on Dec. 14to colleagues urging them to counter potential sales of the aircraft that President Pervez Musharraf has made a cause celebre based on his frontline ally status with the Bush administration.

“There continue to be media reports that the Administration is considering the sale of F-16 fighter aircraft to Pakistan. We oppose such a sale and ask that you join with us in sending the attached letter to President Bush,” say Ackerman and Ros-Lehtinen.

“...if the United States provides F-16s to Pakistan, planes inherently capable of delivering nuclear weapons, the message will be that our true strategic partner in South Asia is Pakistan,” squandering the opportunity to continue building the strong relationship that the U.S. “needs” with India.

Rep. Ackerman is co-chair of the Caucus on India and Indian Americans, and Rep. Ros-Lehtinen is a member who is slated to become the Republican co-chair of the caucus in January, taking over from Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC). They hope to garner enough support before sending the letter to the White House. “We firmly believe that such a sale would undermine our long-term strategic interests in South Asia and urge you not to grant a license for such a sale,” the letter to the President emphasizes.

Since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, the U.S. has lifted sanctions against Pakistan and has provided generous economic and military assistance to that nation in return for Pakistan’s support in fighting Al Qaeda and the Taliban, the letter notes. The Fiscal Year 2005 Foreign Operations Bill contains the first $600 million tranche of a five year, $3 billion assistance package for Pakistan.

“We view economic assistance as necessary to reform Pakistan’s schools, provide maternal and child health care programs, support economic restructuring, and otherwise engage in the types of programs that will stop Pakistan from being a breeding ground for terrorists. Military assistance, however, is another matter,” the letter contends.

It acknowledges the Bush administration’s hard work to forge a new and different relationship with India, a relationship defined in no uncertain terms in the National Security Strategy outlined in 2002. The NSS described India as a “growing world power with which we (U.S.) have common strategic interests.”

The letter compliments the president with the recent steps to further the U.S.-India relationship –– from counterterrorism to joint military exercises –– “all been aimed at creating the trust and closeness that the world’s oldest and the world’s largest democracies should have.”

However, the legislators insist that those relations would be undermined with the F-16 sales. “Such a sale will send a clear message to the Government of India that we have made our strategic choice in South Asia, and that choice is Pakistan,” they warn. “We strongly urge you not to authorize such a sale and thereby prevent the disruption in our relations with India that would surely accompany it.”