US President George W Bush rewarded a key ally in the war on terrorism recently by authorising the sale of F-16 fighter jets to Pakistan, a move that reversed a 15-year policy begun under his father.

India subsequently warned that the move would destabilise the volatile region adding the US action would spark an arms race on the Indian subcontinent.

The question to ask now is this: can we trust the US to maintain world peace? What is happening in 2005 is nothing new. In the 1970s, when Iran under Ayatollah Khomenni became a menace in the Middle East with its revolutionary export of toppling secular states, the US stepped in by arming Iraq, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.

In the civil war in Lebanon in the late 70s, it was Syria that maintained the peace between the Christian minority and the Shiites in Lebanon. Without Syria in the 1970s , Lebanon would have been a much worse state. Now the US wants Syria out of Lebanon because Syria has nothing left that the US needs.

Indonesia under Suharto annexed East Timor during the heights of the communist domino theory scare in Asia. The US provided the logistics support for Suharto to annex East Timor. The reasoning then was that it was better for Indonesia to have East Timor than the communists.

Remember then that South Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Malaysia were all fighting communist insurgencies in their own backyards. It was an agreement of convenience for the US to turn a blind eye to what Suharto did to East Timor.

When Saddam Hussein was in charge in Iraq, there was food on the table. The war in Iraq and its aftermath has almost doubled the malnutrition rate among children, a UN expert has said. The provincial governors (warlords, if you like) had never dared cross the line that Saddam drew for them.

Look at Iraq now - warlords running no control and getting out of hand. And the US still insists that Iraq is better without Saddam.

According to experts, there is plenty of oil in the Arctic to supply the world many times over its needs. The US has signaled that it is interested to explore this area. Oil drilling in the Arctic will cause even more environmental damage to our planet's fragile ecosystem.

The US cannot be trusted to maintain world peace. The US as the sole superpower is more dangerous. With the demise of the Soviet Union, only one other nation can provide a balance. China.