Pakistan arms deal sours

i posted way back on may 8 about this u.s. arms deal with pakistan and speculated about how india would respond... of course, not long after, the u.s. cut some special deals with india and india basically abandoned its historical non-aligned status, a huge move that caused raised eyebrows around the world...

Pakistan's decision to postpone the US-subsidized purchase of 77 nuclear-capable F-16 fighter planes from the ailing Lockheed-Martin Corporation provides an opportunity for the Bush administration and Congress to call off a disastrous deal that the United States should never have proposed in the first place.

In economic terms, it would be reckless for Pakistan to pile on new foreign debt by spending $3.5 billion on F-16s. Even before the earthquake, Pakistan was a poor country, with per capita gross national income of $600 per year.

[...]

For the United States, the damaging strategic consequences of the F-16 deal have become increasingly apparent since the White House offered to sell the planes last March. It is fueling an arms race between New Delhi and Islamabad just when a delicate peace process has begun to ease tensions in Kashmir, and it is rekindling anti-US sentiment in India just when the administration has started to move toward a ''strategic partnership" with New Delhi to strengthen India as a counterweight to China and Iran.

it would be both interesting and novel if the united states was to define and engage in a foreign policy that actually encouraged peace instead of war but, hey, that wouldn't be to the advantage of the arms manufacturers now, would it...?

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