Posted on 12/01/2006 2:19:29 PM PST by Gengis Khan
WASHINGTON: A powerful US senator has a “dream” that could become a nightmare for peaceful countries like Pakistan, China and Iran with no history of aggression against their neighbours.
Joseph Biden (D-Delaware), the incoming chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told an Indian weekly: “My dream is that in 2020 the two closest nations in the world will be India and United States. If that occurs, the world will be safer.” Referring to the “decades of mistrust and suspicion” between India and United States, Biden said “This is the single most important relationship that we have to get right for our own safety’s sake.”
He assured India that as the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, he would not bring up the issue of Kashmir without “consultations with India”. He said, “We should use whatever positive pressure we can to move in the direction (Indian Prime Minister Manmohan) Singh is moving.” It may be mentioned that Indian Congress President Sonia Gandhi stated on November 28 that negotiations with Pakistan would continue but India’s position on Kashmir would not change. India holds that Kashmir is an “integral part of India.”
Justifying India’s nuclear programme, Biden said, “India lives in a very rough neighbourhood.”
The Moron from Delaware pontificates. God only knows what damage a complete fool like Biden can do.
Same here. China and Russia are run by tyrants and its only going to get worse.
Biden is dangerously stupid. Have you ever watched him in committee ask seven and eight minute to witnesses? Then when they begin an answer he cuts them off to ask another long question.
The man is in love with the sound of his voice.
I have noticed. And he doesn't need to listen to answers to questions. He already knows everything. He is as arrogant as he is dumb.
Scrappleface? Onion?
The best thing that ever happened to India was being made a part of the British Empire. It's taken a century or so, but now India is truly beginning to reap the rewards of having learned how to respect order and the rule of law in an English-speaking democracy.
This is true and a singular reason for the desirability of cementing a firm alliance. They wasted a generation dallying with the scumbag Nehru, but have been making up ground lost due to that socialist abortion in recent decades. Plus they have a billion people entering the middle class(read: "Market") faster than China's are.
The best thing that ever happened to India was being made a part of the British Empire. It's taken a century or so, but now India is truly beginning to reap the rewards of having learned how to respect order and the rule of law in an English-speaking democracy.
No sir...That is exteremely wrong statement...In the 1700 when the british were not around,India produced 20% of the world's GDP ...By the time british left in 1947 India was barely producing 1% of the world's GDP....If India would have somehow managed to stay independent of the british, India would be rivaling today's Japan in terms of development... British leeches did nothing but suck blood out of India.....They systematically destroyed industry and skills..
I am surprised to hear such comments from Americans who themselves threw away the British rule...
Any informed student of India's modern history will tell you that many of Nehru's social & economic policies laid a solid foundation for building prosperity,but which was wasted after the 60s.The only major mistake he made in the economy was not adequately reforming the agro-sector.
I still have spots before my eyes from my propogandometer vaporizing.
That's gonna leave a mark! Gotta love all the Dasee...
Did Biden say this, or did he steal it from Neil Kinnock?
The British colonial rule brought along an institutional environment that guaranteed property rights, ensured free trade, had fixed exchange rates, uniform currency system, open capital markets, created a well developed system of railways and telegraphs, a bureaucracy free from political interferences and a modern legal system.
These are very important achievements, indeed, I would submit.
While it's true that towards the end of British rule, India was suffering from economic stagnation and other problems, the GDP comparisons you make don't take into account the enormous expansion of world GDP during the time you mention as a result of industrialization and the expansion of markets mediated by the British Empire and other political entities. So if India's percentage of world GDP shrank during the two-and-a-half centures from 1700 to 1950, that goes hand-in-hand with the just-mentioned global expansion.
By leaving India with the legacy mentioned in the quoted passage above, the British prepared her to work out her own internal problems in an orderly and systematic way, paving the way for the blossoming of India that we're beginning to witness today.
If you're Indian, please forgive me for seeming to disagree with you about the history of your own country. Let me emphasize that I'm presenting my take on things as I see them from a distance and I'm certainly open to being corrected about matters that I might have gotten wrong.
Best regards to you...
Biden is the mine-sweeper. His job is to go out there and throw some red-meat in the air, and the REAL Democrat candidates for President are gauging reaction from it. That's all it is. Biden came out swinging against Mexico a few days ago.
The Democrats are going to court the conservative vote with a vengeance in 2008. They are going right at the GOP's gut. This is the new Rat strategy.
(1) If the GOP moves further to the right, the Dems will claim the "conservative-middle" (watch for this new slogan by the Dims) and say that Republicans are again pandering to the "extreme right."
(2) If the GOP moves to the left, they will lose the conservative vote and the independents will just vote for the Dims.
Well...You are enitled to your opinions...
There is a tendency in the anglophone world to depict the British colonial rule as somehow beneficial to the 'Brown' races of India. The color equation is alway just below the surface. The beneficial nature of british rule is a very incorrect assesment..I am going to dispute whatever is written in Wikipedia article..I was not aware of this article in Wikipedia...
The reason why India could not expand econimically when the whole world was expanding was the blood sucking british that you think so highly of. They created conditions that would benefit themselves and whatever so called development they carried out (say railways..etc) were precisely geared to exploit the resources of India for their own development...The british rule was worse than the Muslim rule..The muslims came..conquered but left most of the population and the economy alone. The british on the other had ruined India economically.....
The british left India economically ruined and left her with the festering issues like Kashmir as a parting gift...
After 60 years of independence, I would not say that all that is wrong is because of British but certainly some blame goes to them and that outweighs any 'favors' the british did to India......India had nothing to thank for to the British...
Well this whole thing has nothing to do with the US-India relations... Bygones are bygones and US and India are natural partners...
There is a tendency in the anglophone world to depict the British colonial rule as somehow beneficial to the 'Brown' races of India. The color equation is alway just below the surface.
I made no mention of color, nor was I thinking about color. Indeed, I made a post on another thread a few days ago pointing out that East Asians (which includes Indians) score about 6 points higher on standardized I.Q. tests than do Caucasians. Moreover, the few Indians I know are among the smartest people I've ever met, as well as being warm and wonderful folks. So nothing I said should be taken to be coming from a racial point of view.
The british rule was worse than the Muslim rule..The muslims came..conquered but left most of the population and the economy alone.
It's impossible to re-write history, of course, but I would submit that had India been colonized completely by muslims and had muslim rule extended to the present day, India would be in the same predicament as other islamically controlled nations are today, to wit, completely dependent upon Western ideas and technologies for their continued survival. India has been fortunate indeed to avoid such a potential catastrophe.
East Asian Indians ARE caucasians.
(It's a small part of why we speak a language in the Indo-European language group)
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