US eyes big Pakistan, India arms sales

Talk about playing both sides

By Jim Wolf



WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Bush administration is maneuvering to balance possible big new U.S. arms sales to archrivals India and Pakistan in the new year.

In the past week, U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld have made separate visits, not announced in advance, to Pakistan, a key ally in the U.S.-declared war on terrorism.

Islamabad will make up its mind in the coming year on a U.S. offer to resume F-16 fighter aircraft sales after a 16-year break, Foreign Minister Khursheed Kasuri was quoted by the Associated Press of Pakistan as saying after Cheney left.

Earlier this month, Air Force Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Kohler, head of the Pentagon's Defense Security Cooperation Agency, said he expected Pakistan to modify buying plans because of the October 8 earthquake that killed more than 73,000 people.

"I think that what we were ready to do right before the earthquake is probably going to have to change," Kohler said in a December 7 interview with Reuters in Washington.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20051225/pl_nm/arms_india_pakistan_dc

You remember how that one turned out?

India does have a lot of our jobs that have been outsourced.

jobs, and a few other professions. We are friends with Pakistan because we send them money and goods and arms and instructions to teach all those terrorists how to fight while looking like they're the enemy. In other words, money to al Qaeda to fight in Afghanistan against the Russians and money sent from India to Pakistan and then sent to Muhamid Atta for 9-11. Need those guys in the circle there.

that is one culture that is extraordinarily creative and eager for all things tech.

they will also -- i suspect -- give u.s. banking services a real run for their money the more prosperous they become.

country.

Arming counties is not the answer to human survival. But who gives a damn? This is so outrageous!

another factor in the wealth equasion.

If they start trading arms, is the * administration going to see them as targets like Syria, Iran, North Korea, etc.?

and spend that money helping people instead. I'm sure the quake victims could use the assistance that money could buy. Oh no, BushCo would much rather spend money killing people.

to be our buffer zone between China and our mideast oil in the continuing war to maintain our American Way of Life.

180

then we might sell you some F-16s. Otherwise we're just gonna sell them to your pals in India. We need a buffer against China, you know? Capisce?"

Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeldt et al are in deep political doodoo, then Cheney and Rumsfeldt show up in Pakistan within a day of each other. Now we might, or might not (terrible earthquake, you know?), resume F-16 sales to Paki after a 16-year embargo.

Indians have been very skillful in acquiring military hardware before. They won't buy without licensing to produce the hardware domestically which the US will not agree on. The American hardware is overpriced as compared to Russian, French and Israeli gear. There will never be a blackmail vis à vis spare parts and in many cases the non-US hardware is superior.

Indians may buy one or two planes "to test them" -- i.e. to ascertain the capabilities of what Pakistan is buying but no major sales will occur.

U.S. Foreign Policy of Ethnic Supremacy in Pakistan: 50 years and counting
December 26, 2005

The United States continued policy of support for Pakistan is now viewed by the majority of average and poor Pakistanies as a policy of ethnic supremacy. That the majority of these same peoples would like to dissolve the country into its natural democratic secular nationalist intentions seems to be lost on the one great power whom would gain the most from such unities.

For 50 years the US, intentionally or unintentionally, has supported the Punjabi military and economic elite of Pakistan in suppressing the overwhelming majority of the rest of the countries ethno-religious groups. The minority elites, usually of the military persuasion, of the other three noteworthy ethno-religious groups of Pakistan that the Punjabies buy into their camp is a mockery of the reality of this regressive state. That in and of itself would not be so bad, except for our hand its in longevity.

As long as the US continues to have its intentions backwards in Pakistan the majority of its people will hold the US responsible for its duplicity in their present sufferings and the US will in fact create a more dangerous world for its own interests.

Whether the anti-American sentiments of the Pakistani public are based in credible grievances or not is mute as it relates to the fertile ground our policies are creating for anti-American sentiment. How any of this serves long-term US interests in Central and South Asia one might ask.

Conversely to our present policy, if the US were to implement strategies that led to the natural break up of Pakistan under the democratic nationalist forces within it, or at a minimum withheld military and economic support from Islamabad in oppressing our would be allies, the US would find itself the legitimate protector and instigator of self determined liberty once more and its credibility on the ascendancy. Furthermore, the odds for achieving critical US national security goals in the region would undoubtedly rise substantially. At current, Russia, Iran and China are having a field day in playing us like fools. If you do not believe Pakistan is at the center of this war, you’re missing the Achilles heel.

At what point does the American public wake up, speak out and demand their government stop supporting cultural and religious genocide inside Pakistan in their name?