Posted on 03/26/2005 12:06:13 AM PST by Gengis Khan
ATLANTA, GA, Mar. 25 (UPI) -- The U.S. government announced Friday its decision sell nuclear-capable Lockheed-Martin F-16 C/D strike fighter aircrafts to Pakistan. While the deal still needs congressional approval, given that the Republicans control both houses of Congress, the sale is unlikely to face any roadblock.
(Excerpt) Read more at washtimes.com ...
It is truly March Madness. After the Terri Schiavo thing, and now this, I am half-expecting for China to be made the 51st state! Or maybe it already is, for all intents and purposes.
Now let me go watch the nice piggies flying above my house!
Nuclear capable? The Pakis already have nuclear capable aircraft. I also suspect that this article was written before Fridays announcement of an F-18 deal with the Indians.
And i am sure that these new F-16s we are going to give (since they are paid for by US taxpayers) to Pakistan will have a number of them made nuclear capable the moment they touch Pakistani soil.
Whats the difference if they buy f-16's from us or Su-27's from Russia? either way they will have what they need. At least this way we get the money. And the workers get the work.
Other Pakistani N-capable aircraft like the Mirage-5,& the Chinese A-5 have nowhere near the air to air capability of an F-16 or the payload.
The US has only offered the F/A-18 to India,along with joint-production.Something the French,the Europeans(Britain/Germany) & Russia have done ages ago with their systems.The F/A-18 has a chance only if the US relases the JDAM,SLAM-ER/JASSM,AMRAAM,APG-80s,along with maximum security against sanctions.You see,unlike in the 60s,India can afford to not be treated as equal-equal with Pakistan & the French,Russians,Israelis,South Africans are all drooling for an Indian contract.
The Russians(& the French & the Poles) know which side their bread is buttered on when it comes to selling weaponry to a semi-failed & bankrupt state like Pakistan.They have a far bigger market in India.
About 'we' getting the money,hope you know that Pakistan has got over 3 bilion US$ of military aid since Sept 11th-so how exactly do 'we' get hard currency????
well, the folks that make the aircraft get the work, siince the F-16 is now dead, to the US. we just recieved the last F-16 yesterday i believe? The US will only sell f-16 not buy anymore. someone needs to keep these people working. Also, i would rather have Pakistan use the aid on our aircraft, rather than giving russia our money.
FYI: India is not our friend. They vote every time against the uSA at the uN.
Err,You cannot use American military aid to buy foreign systems unless the US allows it(as in the case of submarines or tank engines from Europe for Egypt or Israel).The Russians will never sell to Pakistan-they have billions to make in India & they are smart enough to recognise that .Besides Pakistanis regularly turn up in Chechnya,a fact the Russians haven't taken kindly to .
Yep,India has done a lot of evil things-
1.It has yet to sell nuclear tech to distinguished members of the International community,including North Korea,Libya & Iran.
2.It's citizens were among 3 nations(others being Poland & the Phillipines) to have endorsed GWB & the US in a global opinion poll.
3.India hasn't had an incident where an American journalist kidnapped & had his throat slit & the terrorists asking for resupply of F-16s.& India doesn't have a military dictator(oops,it never had one) who said Daniel Pearl was turning up in places he had no business to be in.
4.India's intell agencies did nothing to help form the Taliban.Instead they committed the cardinal sin of forming & arming the Northern alliance along with Iran,Russia & Uzbekistan among others.
ok then they buy from China. Should China get our money? Even if they dont (our money) they still can buy from China.
Pakistan has been China's longest lasting ally.They have stayed that way,even when the US was selling arms to them.Now as they are recieving new F-16s,they are also getting the JF-17/FC-1 fighter & 4 frigates from China.In the late 80s,Pakistan is said to have leased an F-16 to the PRC,which helped them to finetune their J-10 fighter.So if the US sells new F-16s to Islamabad,pls keep that possibility in mind.
Yep,you should also arm Pakistan which is buying scores of weaponry from Beijing & is also building a new deepwater port in Pakistan.What better way to counter China than to arm it's oldest friend.
Ok then: Nevermind!
FYI: India is not our friend. They vote every time against the uSA at the uN.
---Yes but at least we never organised, coordinated and funded jihadis flying aeroplanes into your buildings unlike those whome your country is arming with weaponry.
As for voiting against the US at the UN, we needed to do something to buy the Soviet veto at a time when the US, China and the entire Muslim world ganged up against India at the UN ( that was the time the US was pally with China and the Islamic world, now things are a bit different of course and we all know why ;) ). We did what we needed to do and we did nothing wrong.
I hope we have them fitted with GPS trackers.
Hey, its capitalism. We'll just have to deal with them when they attack us or our allies.
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