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The U.S. Department of Defense is attempting to sell eight F-16s to Pakistan in a deal disputed by U.S. lawmakers as well as India:
On Friday evening, the United States decided to push ahead with the sale and delivery of eight U.S.-made F-16 Block-52 fighters to Pakistan in a deal valued at $699 million. The U.S. Department of Defense's Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) notified U.S. lawmakers about the deal. The DSCA's approval comes days after Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, expressed concern to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry that the Obama administration should withhold such a deal due to concerns that Pakistan was insufficiently targeting militant groups hostile to the United States, specifically the Haqqani Network*. U.S. legislators have a 30 day period to review and potentially block the sale. Corker's hold on the funding could end the deal unless Pakistan manages to find an alternate way to finance the purchase.
"We support the proposed sale of eight F-16s to Pakistan, which we view as the right platform to in support of Pakistan's counterterrorism and counterinsurgency operations," a DSCA official told Defense News . In addition to eight F-16 Block 52 fighters, the deal will include increased performance engines, advanced radars, electronic warfare equipment, and spare and repair parts. In its official notice, the DSCA noted that the "proposed sale contributes to U.S. foreign policy objectives and national security goals by helping to improve the security of a strategic partner in South Asia." Between 2002 and 2014, the United States sold $5.4 billion in defense equipment to Pakistan.
[...] Progress on this deal has thrust the U.S.-Pakistan relationship back into the limelight, highlighting concerns of Pakistan's complicated status as a U.S. ally. Additionally, the deal has drawn concern and criticism from the Indian government, which is increasingly partnering with the United States itself on defense cooperation. [...] New Delhi's concern is that the F-16 aircraft will be diverted away from counter-terrorism purposes and toward striking India in any future skirmish between the two countries. The DSCA, in its notification to Congress, assess that "The proposed sale of this equipment and support will not alter the basic military balance in the region."
*The Haqqani network were the militants holding Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl captive. The group has close ties to Pakistan's Inter-Service Intelligence (ISI).
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday February 16 2016, @02:25AM
We're so desparate for money, that we sell advanced weaponry to backward tribals? We are willing to support a government hostile to India? I thought we LIKED India? Pakistan is already a danger to the world. They have nuclear weapons, yet half of their country is held by the Taliban.
This is so screwed up. Our government doesn't care about stability, or security. Witness the instability in Iraq, which we caused.
A lot of people in Washington seriously need their heads examined. They are completely out of touch with reality.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Hairyfeet on Tuesday February 16 2016, @02:28AM
You ain't figured out how this scam works yet? 1.- Sell advanced planes to potential enemies, 2.- The regime changes and they turn on you, 3.- Defense industry says "they have advanced tech so you need our super duper black hole of money suckage new planes!" lather rinse repeat.
Hell they been playing this little con game on the American people for half a century and they STILL ain't caught on, they sure as hell aren't stopping now LOL.
ACs are never seen so don't bother. Always ready to show SJWs for the racists they are.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by anubi on Tuesday February 16 2016, @03:31AM
All wars are Banker's Wars [topdocumentaryfilms.com]
( Film runs about 45 minutes. If you, like me, are searching for what is really behind all this crap, this made more sense to me than most. )
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 16 2016, @07:54AM
obligatory extended material. [youtube.com]
(Score: 1) by anubi on Tuesday February 16 2016, @10:41AM
I have been watching your link... I need to find some way to download this and keep it.
The link you posted is the most informative I have seen yet. Its long, but there is a lot of good stuff here.
So far, its been in near perfect alignment with what I have understood how we have got into the financial mess the whole world is finding itself in.
About three and a half hours of it. But to me, a helluva lot more informative and important than another movie.
If more people would take the trouble to understand just how this works, we could do something about it.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 16 2016, @01:07PM
youtube-dl is your friend
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 16 2016, @02:30PM
http://www.cys-audiovideodownloader.com/ [cys-audiovideodownloader.com]
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Hairyfeet on Tuesday February 16 2016, @03:23PM
Already seen it, but I think the "military industrial complex two step" is a little less "subtle" for lack of a better word and they have been doing it since the end of WWII. Hell if they didn't sell advanced tech to enemies, how would they force the American people to pay for new shitty planes and tanks and missiles at crazy mark up? After all if they didn't let everything from Stingers to F16s end up in enemy hands all the USA would be facing is Soviet era shit that an F15 from 1985 could dominate, we can't have that now can we?
This is one thing we frankly should give the soviets credit for as they were NEVER that fucking stupid. If you look at the tanks and planes they sold places like Iran? They were all of them, down to the last, the "M" series export models...know what the "M" stood for? Monkey Models, as in "we don't trust these shit flinging monkeys with anything good" so they stripped everything state of the art and replaced it with obsolete tech. For just one example the T72M didn't have a guidance computer, didn't have ATGM launch capability, and had the state of the art night vision replaced with the one from the T55, which was 20 years out of date. The Soviets never had to worry about their own weapons being used against them because what they sold was cheap knock offs of the real thing.
ACs are never seen so don't bother. Always ready to show SJWs for the racists they are.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 16 2016, @02:39AM
"We" don't like India because they buy Russian and French weapons. "We" like countries with horrible human rights records and who also sponsor terrorism, like Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, because they buy American. Get it now?
(Score: 2) by captain normal on Tuesday February 16 2016, @03:00AM
Agree, we should be selling F-16s to India. We should never have allowed the formation of Pakistan into two sections on either side of India.
"It is easier to fool someone than it is to convince them that they have been fooled" Mark Twain
(Score: 3, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 16 2016, @04:35AM
> We should never have allowed the formation of Pakistan into two sections on either side of India.
Yeah, because meddling in the internal affairs of other countries, especially democracies, has been such a great success.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday February 16 2016, @02:07PM
We should never have allowed the formation of Pakistan into two sections on either side of India.
Yeah, because meddling in the internal affairs of other countries, especially democracies, has been such a great success.
Four things to observe here. First, the country in question was England which made those decisions. Second, by definition spinning off a colony is no longer an internal affair. Third, the resulting conflict whereby Bangladesh became an independent country consumed several hundred thousand to several million lives including genocide at the hands of the Pakistanis. And fourth, Pakistan ended up not being a democracy.
Sure, it might not have been a success by whatever measure you use, but we don't have to meet those standards in order to do better than what actually occurred.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 16 2016, @08:03AM
When we granted independence to India, we did not see fit to create Pakistan and Bangladesh as separate countries. The border to which you allude did not yet exist.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 16 2016, @08:59AM
We hasten to add that we value the membership of all three in our Commonwealth.
(Score: 1) by nitehawk214 on Tuesday February 16 2016, @08:27PM
"We" as in the United States are not the ones desperate for money, and are not the ones that would be benefiting from this deal.
The executives and stockholders of Lockheed Martin are the ones that are desperate for money and will be profiting.
"Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh