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Americans will love their toys
MichiganTech Online Lode ^ | April 6, 2005 | Matt Gilson, Staff Writer

Posted on 04/07/2005 3:48:26 AM PDT by Gengis Khan

Americans will love their toys By: Matt Gilson, Staff Writer Americans love toys; we can’t get enough of them. With the help of our enormous defense budget, we’ve created quite a few. Of course being the entrepreneurs we are we often times find ways of selling them. Despite recent history, the Bush administration has decided once again that the best reward for help on the war with terror is to sell more weapons. This time we’ve sold F-16s to Pakistan. Good for them, right? They were the launch platform for our military in Operation: Iraqi Freedom. Giving them weapons will help facilitate their democracy, right? Sure, we should pat them on the back. Unfortunately it’s more like saying to your neighbor, “I know you beat your wife, but you stopped your dog from messing on my lawn. Here’s a high definition television.” Only the television will probably carry missiles developed by the Chinese military. I salute you if you’re still reading; the analogy is a little odd. This F-16 deal was struck long ago, between the Reagan Administration and Pakistan’s leaders. The odd thing is that Pakistan paid for the F-16s, in full, without ever having received them. Not until 1998 were they repaid when Clinton’s effort to curb Pakistan’s nuclear program failed and he decided to give them their money back, as any sensible business owner would. So what did Pakistan do? They went to Belgium to pick up a few used jets instead, and luckily for their enemies Pakistan failed. This has been a very delicate issue for a long time. I wonder how many of you still remember the mini-arms race between India and Pakistan? As it turns out, it is still a hot issue for them, and India isn’t too pleased with our choice to finally pay up. Not that India has ground to stand on, as they themselves are in talks of similarly acquiring F-16s or possibly F-18s. So we’ve sold them and this time it’s for real. Pakistan claims it will help them control terrorism in more difficult to reach locations, like behind that last molar. Pakistan’s approach to terrorism seams to be flying over it really fast, while Americans chose to create an even larger governmental body to loom very, very closely to it. In any case these new Pakistani fighter jets are likely to carry Chinese missiles developed in partnership with Italy before the American induced arms embargo. What does it all mean? It means what goes on outside of the Michael Jackson-obsessed media is far more complicated than one could comprehend, and one couldn’t possibly count on the Hannity and Combs of the world to inform us. I don’t claim to be better and finding things out, but I certainly can’t understand the lack of coverage on a real issue such as this. Instead I have to hear countless experts explain to me exactly what Terry might be feeling if it were possible to read minds. I’m not sure what it will take for America to learn that selling weapons probably isn’t actually in our best interest. Arming Israel made us a lot of enemies. Arming the Taliban couldn’t have gone more wrong. Supplying Saddam with biological and chemical weapons sure didn’t work out. What kind of tally do we need before we stop?


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Editorial; Extended News; Foreign Affairs; Government; News/Current Events; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: armstrade; f16d; india; pakistan; southasia; us

1 posted on 04/07/2005 3:48:27 AM PDT by Gengis Khan
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To: Gengis Khan
...and one couldn’t possibly count on the Hannity and Combs...

Who is "Combs"?

2 posted on 04/07/2005 4:10:00 AM PDT by raybbr
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To: Gengis Khan



These are the type of people that complain about the US siding with the Soviet Union to defeat Nazi Germany.


3 posted on 04/07/2005 4:48:34 AM PDT by LauraleeBraswell ( CONSERVATIVE FIRST-Republican second)
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To: LauraleeBraswell
These are the type of people that complain about the US siding with the Soviet Union to defeat Nazi Germany.

I guess we did the best we could. We defeated Nazi Germany, THEN we defeated the USSR. It just took a while. Personally, I have been amazed by Pakistan's cooperation. It has to have been a big help.

4 posted on 04/07/2005 5:00:53 AM PDT by Huck (Unauthorized mp3 file sharing is THEFT.)
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To: LauraleeBraswell
No, they don't complain about America siding with the soviet union against the nazis, however this type did complain about:
(1) America siding with England against the nazis prior to hitler attacking the ussr.
(2) America and England not doing enough to open a "2nd" front against germany to help take some of the pressure off the usssr
5 posted on 04/07/2005 5:02:56 AM PDT by sticker
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To: Gengis Khan

Not to accuse the author of being an idiot but....Pakistan was not the launching point for OIF - Kuwait was. Those damn facts just keep impugning the author's credibility.


6 posted on 04/07/2005 5:05:17 AM PDT by Dilbert56
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