Article

2008-07-24 India-Pakistan

Plan Would Use Antiterror Aid on Pakistani Jets

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Posted by john frum 2008-07-24 07:54|| || Front Page|| [11127 views ] Top

#1 That's our George (imagine FDR giving free war planes to Fascist Italy).

Posted by g(r)omgoru 2008-07-24 08:43|| 2008-07-24 08:43|| Front Page Top

#2 I wonder what the Indians say about us in private...

Posted by sludge 2008-07-24 09:33|| 2008-07-24 09:33|| Front Page Top

#3 I'll say it again. Has a Pakistani F-16 ever seen the airspace over the NWFP or the Wazoos?

Posted by tu3031 2008-07-24 09:52|| 2008-07-24 09:52|| Front Page Top

#4 I wonder what the Indians say about us in private...

It isn't very complimentary.

Posted by Grease Dark Lord of the Algonquins9226 2008-07-24 09:54|| 2008-07-24 09:54|| Front Page Top

#5 Mmm. This has the stink of kabuki theatre about it. The Pakistanis get the impression that State's in their corner, they *don't* get their F-16s because of Congressional "interference", and the Pakistani Army starts getting the proper impression that maybe they'd get their aerial boomsticks if they start pretending like they actually control their own territory for a change.

Posted by Mitch H.">Mitch H. 2008-07-24 09:58|| http://blogfonte.blogspot.com/]">[http://blogfonte.blogspot.com/] 2008-07-24 09:58|| Front Page Top

#6 Stupid.

Posted by mojo">mojo 2008-07-24 11:25|| 2008-07-24 11:25|| Front Page Top

#7 I have tried to type something 3 times and decided not to post. Stop this policy of paying before work starts.

Posted by swksvolFF 2008-07-24 12:48|| 2008-07-24 12:48|| Front Page Top

#8 In a two-page notification to Congress, the State Department said that upgrading the avionics, targeting and radar systems of Pakistan's older F-16s would "increase the survivability of the aircraft in a hostile environment"

Those formidable Al-Qaeda air defenses...

Posted by john frum 2008-07-24 15:11|| 2008-07-24 15:11|| Front Page Top

#9 John--So what exactly are we trying to do? Are we trying to bribe Pakistan, or are we trying to contain India? What's the master plan?

Posted by sludge 2008-07-24 16:05|| 2008-07-24 16:05|| Front Page Top

#10 Someone at State got the bright idea that Pakistan's insecurity with respect to India hinders their commitment to the war on terror.

So their conventional capability had to be built up. Only when they felt their conventional forces could negate an Indian attack would they be free to cooperate in the WOT.

This ignores the historical fact that whenever Pakistan's conventional forces have been strong it has actually attacked India. It also ignores Pakistan's possession of nuclear weapons, which were supposedly to deter a conventional strike by India.

Pakistan's nuclear weapons in fact deter Indian raids on terror camp infrastructure. They provide the space for Pakistan to freely fund, train and arm jihadis and send them into India to kill its citizens without risk of retaliation.

Pakistan has started all the wars with India not because they thought they could win a slugfest but in the belief that war would be limited. Their strategy assumes a war of fairly short duration as the outside world attempts to restore peace by cutting off the flow of arms and possibly imposing an oil embargo. So the objectives in any Pakistan attack was to seize territory in Kashmir that they could keep after a ceasefire and to seize territory elsewhere that they could trade after a ceasefire for more territory (or even the whole of Kashmir).

I don't buy this strategy (or the whole strategic depth thing in Afghanistan) but then I'm not a Pak military genius.

Posted by john frum 2008-07-24 17:49|| 2008-07-24 17:49|| Front Page Top

#11 State hasn't been on our side in this conflict since the beginning. Tell them to go pound sand. Also, tell the pakiwakis to take a hike in Wazoo-land - all of them. Pakistan is NOT our friend, just pretending so they can stay on the international dole.

Posted by Old Patriot">Old Patriot 2008-07-24 18:46|| http://oldpatriot.blogspot.com/]">[http://oldpatriot.blogspot.com/] 2008-07-24 18:46|| Front Page Top

#12 Many foreign ministries tend to attract Arabophile and Islamophile types. Their romantic notions about the Islamic world get reinforced when they meet the elites of those cultures.

Posted by john frum 2008-07-24 18:54|| 2008-07-24 18:54|| Front Page Top

#13 #10 john: "Someone at State got the bright idea"

Stop right there - no need for further explanation of this latest abortion.

Idiots.

Posted by Barbara Skolaut">Barbara Skolaut 2008-07-24 19:02|| http://ariellestjohndesigns.com/]">[http://ariellestjohndesigns.com/] 2008-07-24 19:02|| Front Page Top

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