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| India-Pakistan | |
| "...there acutally is a Zionist-Hindu conspiracy!" | |
| 2003-09-12 | |
| This is a few days old but the New Republic is running a new blog by Gregg Easterbrook. THE FIRST TIME AN INDIAN PILOT IN HIS RUSSIAN AIRCRAFT USES AN ISRAELI RADAR SUPPORTED BY AMERICAN COMPUTERS TO SPY ON PAKISTAN, AT LEAST THE WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION WILL BE HAPPY: When I lived in Pakistan, the newspapers attributed every national setback to "the Zionist-Hindu conspiracy." Now it turns out there actually is a Zionist-Hindu conspiracy! Ariel Sharon begins his state visit to India today, but more important from the power-shift standpoint, Israel will sign a deal to sell India $1 billion worth of advanced military equipment. The primary item in the deal, the "Phalcon," is a globalizer's dream. Phalcon is an electronics plane similar to the U.S.-built AWACs. Phalcon uses Israeli radar mounted aboard a Russian aircraft and integrated with American battle-management computers and surveillance hardware. In 2000, Israel wanted to sell the Phalcon to China; Washington gasped, and the sale was dropped. By late 2001, Israel was ready to sell to New Delhi; Washington asked for a delay as one of the favors granted Pakistan after 9/11. Now three of these AWACs-juniors will be sold, and Pakistan has nothing like them. Here, an Indian newspaper trumpets U.S. approval of the transaction. Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan has gambled his government, if not his own life, on switching to the U.S. side in the anti-terrorism war. Yet the United States still won't lift the restrictive tariffs on Pakistani textiles, an action that not only would be consonant with our preaching about free trade but would also improve living standards for typical Pakistanis; and a better life for the typical person in nations such as Pakistan will do more to combat fanaticism than any electronic gizmo. The United States also still won't let Pakistan take possession of the F16 fighters we ostensibly sold to Islamabad more than a decade ago. When Musharraf visited George W. Bush at Crawford ranch this spring, the Pakistani leader was sent away mortified without his fighter planes. Imagine if Bush visited Pakistan, and Musharraf sent him away without whatever Bush had come to ask for? (At least Washington has finally returned Pakistan's downpayment; Islamabad is now trying to buy two squadrons of used F16s from Belgium.) The United States says Pakistan cannot have advanced military aircraft because of its Bomb program. Yet now, by allowing Israel to sell India the Phalcon, the United States now says India can have advanced military aircraft despite its Bomb program.
some of our best friends are Muslim as distinguished from Muslim invaders. But it has no doubt that we were and are a Hindu nation." Compared to all that might have gone wrong, it might be argued that India is the greatest global success story of the past half-century. India has become the world's largest democracy and a reasonably liberal society; it has not fallen apart under ethnic pressure or population expansion, and keeps increasing agricultural output faster than its population grows. Back in the 1960s when Paul Ehrlich was predicting that hundreds of millions of Indians would starve and all Indian society would collapse into Hobbesian anarchy, who would have believed that India today would be democratic, reasonably stable, basically self-sufficient in food and a world leader in engineering? The proverbial visitor from space might consider what is being achieved in India more important to the human future than what is being achieved in the United States. Until such time as wave of Islamic fanaticism ends, however, Pakistan seems more closely tied to U.S. interests. Good point, and the posts below highlight the fact that although we often grow impatient with Perv, he is a key ally in the WOT. And right now Washington simply assumes that Islamabad will toe the U.S. line, at considerable risk to itself and without getting much in return. This may be dangerously short-sighted. I'm not sure that this is a totally accurate portrayal of what's going on behind the scenes and although Easterbrook is a keen, non-partisan observer of Washington, I doubt that he's party to top level dealings. But cheer up, Pakistan. Today you find sympathy for your national predicament being expressed in The New Republic, which is at the very nerve center of the Zionist-American conspiracy! Nice dig at his bosses and editors like Peretz. Easterbrook can be annoying but he often has keen original observations. He raises some interesting points although it?fs not clear if he believes we should have protested the sale to India or sold the planes to Pakistan. Check out his football columns. Not bad for a policy wonk writer. | |
| Posted by:Tokyo Taro |
| #3 Who makes these planes AMC(American Motor Corporation)? |
| Posted by: raptor 2003-9-12 3:05:27 PM |
| #2 Perhaps we should sell the Hindus some of our low mile LA class subs - in case they want to interdict something. Let'em get a taste of an American made boat and the Kilos will be history. We would ne to retrofit with the latest French sonar of course. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2003-9-12 2:02:44 PM |
| #1 http://www.satirewire.com/news/may02/hinjews.shtml |
| Posted by: .com (Abu This RoP™ Asshats) 2003-9-12 11:29:49 AM |