America and the sub-continent (A most insightful article to come from Pakistan)

FRIDAY TIMES ^ | APRIL 4, 2003 | Farrukh Saleem

[BOSTON BRAHMIN]

America's real interest in Pakistan is that we do not become a rogue state; no more, no less

WHAT IS AMERICA'S INTEREST IN THE SUB-CONTINENT?

Let us first look at India. Mumbai is now home to at least three dozen American companies including Kodak, Heinz, Monsanto, Warner Bros, Federal Express, Bank of America, Bankers Trust, Parke Davis, Intel, JP Morgan, Kellogg, Pfizer, Procter & Gamble, American Int'l Group, Exxon-Mobil, Delta and Boston Consulting.

Delhi has AT&T, GE, General Motors, Oracle, Pepsi, Unocal, Xerox, Lockheed, Raytheon, Rockwell, Honeywell, Adobe, AES, Alcoa, American Express, Northrop, McKinsey, Amway, Polaroid and Coca Cola. Bangalore has Caterpillar, Dell, Sun, Texas Instruments, NCR, Hewlett Packard, Motorola, Lucent, IBM, Novell, Ingersoll-Rand, American Data and MetLife. Hyderabad has Microsoft, Cognizant, Chip Engines and Brigade. Chennai has Ford, Caltex, Tenneco, Covansys, Diebold, Citibank, Ernst & Young and Price Waterhouse.

A large majority of US corporate giants are now dependent on Tata Consultancy, Infosys Technologies, Wipro, Satyam Computer Services, HCL Technologies, Patni Computer Systems, Silverline Technologies, Mahindra, Pentasoft, Mascot, Mascom, Mastek, Polaris, L&T and Hexaware (all Indian software giants).

Almost all large US companies now use Indian software giants to do their inventory control, customer service, technical support, insurance claims processing, mortgage processing, document management, bank reconciliation, check processing, credit card processing, inventory management, transport administration, billing services, account payables, payroll services, data analysis or data management. Indian IT companies, in return, earn India a handsome $10 billion a year which is projected to double in the next few years.

Here's a list of major US entities that have, over the past decade, become dependent on Tata Consultancy: Alcoa, American Express, AIG, AT&T, Boeing, Citibank, Compaq, IBM, JC Penney, Kellogg, Lucent, Microsoft, Nike, Northwest Airlines, Schlumberger, Dell Computer, Ford Motor, Hewlett Packard, US Dept of Defense, EMC, Merrill Lynch, State of Pennsylvania, Texas Instruments and Unocal.

Here's a list of US companies that are now dependent on Wipro: General Motors, Xerox, Sun, Cisco, NCR, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Farmers Insurance, Seagate and Home Depot.

Bill Gates, Microsoft's chairman, during his recent Indian tour announced that his company would be investing an additional US$400 million to "expand its activities and promote technology development in India." Oracle, the world's second largest software company, is planning on doubling its Indian operations. The announced expansion plans will create extra 1,800 jobs. Oracle currently employs a staff of some 2,000 in India.

What are our goals and what is America's interest in Pakistan?

Our armed forces live for Kashmir. So do our religious parties. The defense budget (including pensions) stands at Rs180 billion; nearly 6% of our GDP. All the jihadi organisations put together collect an additional Rs70 billion a year for the same cause. The total is a wholesome 8% of our GDP.

There have only been a handful of countries on the face of the planet that used to spend as high a percentage of their GDP on defense as does Pakistan. The list includes Yugoslavia, the Soviet Union, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Mozambique, Somalia and Yemen. Yugoslavia is no more. Split into Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Slovenia and Serbia & Montenegro. The Soviet Union is no more. Split into at least 15 pieces that few even bother to count: Russian Federation, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. The conclusion being that almost every country that has been spending a disproportionately large portion of its GDP on defence has either split up, is in a state of civil war or is economically insolvent.

Our military government is now engaged in a dicey double-dance, appeasing the Americans on the international front and using the mullahs on the domestic front. Internal policy is all about derailing democracy and splitting up democratic forces. External policy is nothing but India-centric.

The khakis and the mullahs both have an identical view of national identity and that of national security. Both oppose the establishment of a constitutional democracy and are against the idea of sovereignty belonging to the people of Pakistan. Both are in favour of curbing fundamental freedoms of the citizens of Pakistan. Both use Islam and India to distract the population from real issues. Their common enemy outside of Pakistan is India. Their common enemies within Pakistan are the mainstream, moderate political entities. In 1947, Deobandi lashkars attacked Kashmir. In 1971, Al Badar and Al Shams fought the Mukhti Bahni alongside 22 Baluch, 32 Punjab, 22 FF, 29 Cavalry and platoons of SSG. In the 1990s, the religious parties provided pretexts to the overthrowing of both Nawaz and Benazir. JUI madaris have been and continue to be recruiting grounds for jihad on the Western as well as our Eastern borders.

On March 31, US Secretary of State Colin Powell, in an interview to the New York Times, said that the "Indo-Pakistan and the whole subcontinent problem" was part of the "broader agenda" that the US plans to go back to after Iraq.

America now needs India to grow. Top American companies have all set up their back-offices (inventory management, payroll, etc.) in India. India, in return, has accumulated US$70 billion in foreign exchange reserves. Pakistan produces nothing that can help America grow. We possess nothing that could be of value to American companies. The new façade we have now erected is just too transparent. Our goals do not overlap America's. America's real interest in Pakistan, as a consequence, is that we do not become a rogue state and that we do not become an agent of instability in the region. No more, no less

[ffusco]

I'll have a Coke with my Tandori Chicken!

[swarthyguy]

The khakis and the mullahs both have an identical view of national identity and that of national security. Both oppose the establishment of a constitutional democracy and are against the idea of sovereignty belonging to the people of Pakistan. Both are in favour of curbing fundamental freedoms of the citizens of Pakistan. Both use Islam and India to distract the population from real issues. Their common enemy outside of Pakistan is India.

Not too many understand this apart from those of us shouting it out.

The MilitaryMullah Complex. Will Mush finally run out of his nine lives? He's survived upto 6 assassination plots, according to some news reports.

[TopQuark]

Indeed, a very honest and insightful article.

Welcome to FR, brahmin.

[madrastex]

...America now needs India to grow. Top American companies have all set up their back-offices (inventory management, payroll, etc.) in India. India, in return, has accumulated US$70 billion in foreign exchange reserves. Pakistan produces nothing that can help America grow. We possess nothing that could be of value to American companies....

I suppose that is why there has recently been a billion dollar aid package to Pakistan promised,with more later!!

[Libertarianize the GOP]

http://www.freerepublic.com/perl/bump-list

[gaucho]

All those former American jobs are now going overseas. And it's not just backoffice type work, but also things like architectual drafting, financial auditing, programming and a list of white collar jobs that grows everyday. What happens to the US when most of the work is exported? Who is going to be left employeed to buy products and services from these companies? It used to be that people came to the US for prosperity but now we just ship it overseas.

[mikeIII]

A split-up of this country into ineffectual little entities is probably the best that could happen for the region and the world.

[Cicero]

Good article. Unfortunately there aren't many alternatives, because the "democratic opposition" in Pakistan is thoroughly corrupt. It seems to be one more proof that Islam just doesn't work. Christianity is compatible with Democracy but Islam is not. You can be a good Christian and believe in human freedom, but that's not possible for a "good" Muslim.

[beckett]

mark to read in the AM

[AmericanVictory]

It should be noted that Pakistan's incipient industries were largely destroyed by the Taliban rule in Afghanistan. The prime source of income for the Taliban was the extraction of fees from a teamster type mafia transiting Chinese and Japenese goods through to undercut local Pakistan manufacturing.

[BullDog108]

Will Mush finally run out of his nine lives?

He has yet to meet BullDog007.

;^)