Posted on 03/31/2005 2:37:47 AM PST by Gengis Khan
US tells India, drop dead
March 28, 2005
A friend, usually upbeat about India-US relations, sent me an angry mail over the weekend after President George Bush called up Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the evening of March 25 to inform him that the US had decided to supply F-16 fighter jets to Pakistan and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, in an interview to The Washington Post, "dismissed concerns" about the fallout of the American decision. The mail reads:
"lovely easter gift to india from the us.
moral: proliferate nukes, threaten us interests everywhere, be terror hub, and get rewarded for it. this has been north korea's experience, china's experience, saudi arabia's experience, and pakistan's experience.
suck up to the us, desperately crave its goodwill, allow its odious conversion machine to dictate terms to you, and get slapped on the face. this is india's experience.
simple solution for india: proliferate nuke and missile technology to anybody who wants it, especially taiwan and japan. this will immediately get american respect, much as pokhran-ii did."
The issues that arise from USA's decision to strengthen Pakistan's strike power, I feel, are much larger than merely seeking or getting "American respect." A nation whose civilisational history stretches back to 5,000 years, that is more than Americans can count without a Texas Instruments TI-83, and whose billion-plus population is not dependent on American wheat surplus of the PL 480 variety, can do without "American respect." Thank you very much, but America is welcome to stuff its "respect" in a hot dog.
The larger concerns are two-fold. First, Washington's mollycoddling of Pakistan, a rogue state that has not only proliferated cross-border jihadi terrorism but also spawned an underground bazaar where it has been hawking weapons of mass destruction to other rogue states. Second, the arms race that will follow America's dubious deal, with both India and Pakistan upping their defence expenditure at the cost of social welfare spending.
A third aspect that merits comment is the glib manner in which Rice, during the joint press conference she addressed along with Minister for External Affairs Natwar Singh during her brief stopover in New Delhi earlier this month, waved away any 'announcement' of an American deal on F-16s for Pakistan in the immediate future. Perhaps time and space are extremely elastic for those who wax eloquent on "absent morals" of others.
It is immaterial whether or not Pakistan has been assisting the US in pursuing its "war against terror" -- ask those who are involved in the war, including intelligence operatives, and they will tell you Islamabad has been leading Washington down the garden path -- what is material is that India must protect its own national interest. There is little evidence to show that Pakistan has given up the path of terror; nor is there reason to believe that Islamabad is genuinely interested in peace.
If you have any doubts, look at the daily acts of terror in Jammu and Kashmir; the insidious growth of ISI modules in the Northeast; and, the export of jehadi fundamentalism to India via Nepal. Nothing has changed in the last one year, never mind peaceniks who are making silly asses of themselves.
The absurd claim put out by unnamed sources in the US State Department that the F-16s form part of American assistance to Pakistan to wage war on terrorism is as laughable as the lollypop of advanced fighter jets (F-18s, no less) and nuclear power reactors that has been offered to India. "What the Americans have announced is the actual, physical delivery of F-16s to Pakistan and a bunch of nice promises for India," a foreign office official in New Delhi has said underscoring the absurdity.
No less absurd is the claim made by "senior administration officials" at a background briefing for "select journalists" that the military assistance to Pakistan's military ruler General Pervez Musharraf was aimed at ensuring "a fully democratic, economically promising Pakistan, that feels secure and is thus at peace with its neighbours."
The officials might as well have added that it is inconsequential the US's favourite tin pot dictator is to blame for the runaway basement bomb programmes in North Korea, Iran and Libya, among others. Boys will be boys, you see, naughty and mischievous; what's a component here and a blueprint there?
Those nations that have committed the mistake of trusting the US have come to grief, and how. It will be disastrous if India makes a similar mistake. If the UPA government believes in what it says, that India is a sovereign nation free to make its own choices, then it should not touch the American promise with a bargepole.
The Pakistanis can seek satisfaction in saving 5,000 jobs at Lockheed Martin Corp, Indians need not lose sleep over the plight of unemployed workers in Texas. In fact, it will be fun to watch Bush and Rice squirm, which they shall, if Manmohan Singh and his team look through their alleged offer and go ahead with selecting the next generation, multi-purpose jets from what has been offered by the French, the Swedes and the Russians.
If they choose to be charmed by the Americans, then India might as well say goodbye to its sovereign identity and become another client state of the US like Pakistan has become.
PS: At the launch of journalist Wilson John's book Pakistan's Nuclear Underworld: An Investigation, a devastating expose of how A Q Khan and his bosses in khaki went around hawking nuclear know-how for a fistful of dollars, in New Delhi last week, a former foreign secretary, mindful of the presence of two diplomats from the US mission in the audience, charged the Americans with "doubletalk and duplicity" on illicit nuclear proliferation by the Pakistanis.
Later, one of the American diplomats, fuming over being shown up so bluntly, accosted him and told him that he had been "offensive and insulting to my country" and "you could have been more nuanced without being inaccurate." Retorted the former diplomat: "We are a free country. We can say what we want… I couldn't care less for pretensions of the American empire."
Let's order a second hot dog!
They want AMRAAMs & there are hints that they may get it.
One rewards one when one helps one in a time of need, even at some risk. Pakistan did that. Bush is correct on this one. We may need in the course of events a redux performance from someone. They need to see the benefits of just saying "yes" to Uncle.
Want to hear the hottest new theory in town(Allosaurs_r_us )-India is planning the gas pipeline from Iran so that it can bring gas to China & make a few cents in the process.India is afterall a land of the odd autorickshaw & the buffalo!!!!!!
Please tell me that India surveys its coast for offshore drilling.
That reminds me of an old joke (it can go anyway...when I first heard it, it had to do with a Soviet jet not in Soviet airspace):
Q. What do you call a Pakistani fighter jet over Indian airspace?
A. Skeet
Living in the past?....You dont even have your facts right. India buying weapon systems from China??!!! Man are you crazy? India and China are sworn rivals. China is supposed to be our "enemy number one"! Our nukes are meant for China. As a matter of fact Pakistan buys from China and the two are hard and fast allies! And sorry to tell you but most Paki weapon systems are Chinese!! Surprise??!! And they allowed your troops on their soil because you had put a gun on their head. Otherwise Pakistan was actually a safe heavan for Al Qaida and Pakis were the ones who created the Taliban.
And after all this you (US) give them F-16s......and you wonder why "India does little but bad mouth the U.S.and its policies"?
Yes,it does & a private company,Reliance found a more than promising gas reserve near the Krishna-Godavari delta on India's east coast.But it will take time to develop,so India will continue to depend on Iran,Qatar,Nigeria & God knows who else!!
I wouldn't believe everything Kanchan Gupta says.He is a rightwing nutcase,who whips up a frenzy on everything he writes.
"It is quite apparent India is progressing as a world power all by their little lonesome. They are getting cozy with Iran in order to supply the Chinese with the oil they so desperately need. "
Supply....Chinese.....with.....oil? Are you all right?
Why not have some facts straightened out here?
Fact #1)China has much more oil than India. No question of India selling oil to them.
Fact #2)Both India and China are rising economies and are a major regional/strategic competitors.
Fact #3)India and China are in a cut throat competition for oil. There is no cooperation between the two over Iranian oil. Both are trying to cut into each others influence in the region to ensure their oil supplies.
Fact #4)India has a huge domestic need and there is no way India can/will sell oil to China.
Fact #5)India is building a big navy to secure shipping routes over the IO against the Chinese. China is trying to challenge Indian domination on IO by building naval ports at Gwadar in Pakistan very near Iranian border.
Fact #6)India is getting cozy with Iran for ITS OWN oil needs (NOT TO SUPPLY CHINA). If India doesnt get Iranian oil, China will. Not many choices there for us.
And after the sale of F-16s to Pakistan, I dont think the US is in any position to advise us on our ties with Iran. We need oil and thats more important than pleasing the US.
Because of the past tsunami, much of the Indian Ocean is being hydrographically surveyed again. Many depths have changed by hundreds of meters. Perhaps these surveys will reveal even more encouraging news.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't India part of a gigantic north bound land mass that is still crashing into Southern Asia? If that's the case, then I wonder about the possibilities of fossil fuels/oil and gas reserves just South of India (or where India was given the theoretical shift of plate techtonics).
I'm not a geophysist, so I could be way off.
& what were saying about Pakistan buying F-16s-
Pak has option to get F-16s free from US under aid programme
Press Trust of India
Islamabad, March 31, 2005|18:38 IST
Pakistan has the option of getting some of the F-16 fighter jets free from the US under the $3 billion assistance announced by Washington in 2003.
This was stated by American envoy Ryan C Crocker while launching the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)-funded Poverty Alleviation Programme. The USDA has given a $25 million grant to the Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund for the project.
Crocker said a technical team of US officials would visit Pakistan in the next few weeks to finalise details related to the sale of the fighter jets to Islamabad.
He did not mention the exact date of arrival of the US technical team.
Asked about resolution of Kashmir problem, he said it "is an old and difficult issue". However, the overall progress on the issue was encouraging, he said, pointing out that launch of the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus service would provide an opportunity to the Kashmiris on both sides to meet.
The $3 billion assistance announced by President George W Bush in the summer of 2003 for Pakistan was getting underway this year, local daily Dawn quoted Crocker as saying.
Under the programme, Pakistan would get 600 million annual tranche equally divided between military and economic, it said. The overall US assistance to Pakistan per year is working out to around $700 million, Crocker said.
Both Crocker and Pakistan officials have been saying that the country has the option of buying the F-16 jets under the US aid programme or with the its own funds.
http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/7598_1300946,000500020000.htm
I don't believe that India is giving the gas in the Iran pipeline to China. But yes, it will help to fund a hysterically hateful and new nuclear power (Iran).
Russia and others have been telling India's leaders that Iran is no threat. ...same with Syria. Thus, India is convinced that Pakistan and Saudi Arabia are the only threats in that region.
Have a look at this while we're at it.
"[European] Poll: Iran not a nuclear threat"
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1374229/posts
"Adults in France were more likely to think Iran posed a nuclear threat (34 per cent) than in Germany (30 per cent) and Britain (27 per cent.)"
It doesn't take much thought to know where western Europe stands on the issue. Our USA and Israel are pretty much alone on the issue of Russia, China and their growing Axis.
IMO, from this point on, we should be very careful about making friends overseas and concentrate on building for defense right here (for the USA). Israel should also take notice of the larger Asian/European coalition that is building against it.
That's where Reliance & staterun gas companies have mad their finds,mainly off River deltas.
I am not very sure that such a conversation ever took place but even if it did one can just dismiss it as a little bit of rhetorical one-upmanship.
Hmm,why don't you go to a site like Global security.org & take a look at Pakistan's military.Over 55% of their arsenal is Chinese in origin & that number is increasing.
Sorry if you didn't know,as Pakistan get it's F-16s,it will also be getting 150 fighters & 4 frigates from the PRC.
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