FGM-148 Javelin Portable Anti-Tank Missile
In a the long tradition of not learning from its mistakes, US is expected to arm Ukraine with soon start arming Ukrainian armed forces with Javelin Anti Tank Missile systems. President of USA, Donald Trump is expected to announce his approval of a plan to sell anti-tank missiles to the Ukrainian government.
The presence of such a weapon can change the present Status quo in unprecedented manners. While US hawks might see this deal as part of a containment strategy, all this would do is to severely increase the sophistication of the battles. The fact that the system might be deadly against the all prevalent BMPs, T72s and T64s of the battle fields makes a very big assumption. What Ukraine has is a civil war where the tired combatants can sell their prized missiles easily for a value little more than an extra value meal. There is already an active arms smuggling ring working out of the region.
The leak of such a power system might endanger not just armies or civilians but even the powerful leaders of the western world, whose armored limousines will be blown to smithereens if attacked by a Javelin. The assumption that a rag tag army like that of Afghanistan, Iraq or Ukraine is to actually play into hands of international arms smugglers.
The fact that much of Ukraine’s security forces are ill trained but battle hardened militia who are waging a war against there own countrymen in east does’nt help either. Take the 2,500 strong Azov Battalion for example which openly endorses Nazis as its inspirations. Reports published by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCR) have connected the Azov Battalion to war crimes such as mass looting, Rape, unlawful detention, and torture. Now fully under operational Army, the uni maintains its militia mindset.
The Donbass Battalion, which together with Azov battalion forms part of the National Guards is no better. On 24 December 2014, Amnesty International reported that the unit is blocking humanitarian aid sent from Ukraine.
The human rights record and discipline of the Ukrainian army itself is not something that the country can be proud of.
In a similar situation, Pentagon had supplied Stringer surface to air missiles to Afghanistan’s mujaheddin – allied with Pakistan (called Taliban these days). After the Soviet forces pulled out of the war US launched Operation MIAS (Missing in Action Stingers) to buy back its own inventory.Launched in 1990 with a Congressional earmark of $10 million, the operation competed against Chechen, Azeri and Iranian arms dealers anxious to capitalise on the break-up of the Soviet Union and impending battles among satellite states, as well as drug dealers looking for artillery to fend off aircraft in their space. even today a large inventory of such missiles exist with Iranian Revolutionary Guards. May be this time around the arms smugglers would already be in Kiev waiting for shipments from US ready to put a forwarding address somewhere in Pyongyang.
