Posted 4/04/2005 05:13:00 PM by Douglas

Even more on the Pakistani F-16 deal. No, this one's not going to go away.

Bush administration officials simultaneously announced that India would have the opportunity to buy some of the latest American combat aircraft.

Pakistan is initially expected to buy some two dozen state-of-art F-16 warplanes. "It will qualitatively enhance the capacity of the Air Force and the armed forces of Pakistan," says Mr. Masood.

The relationship between President Musharraf and the Bush Administration has strengthened since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the US. Washington has already extended its help in rescheduling debt, and last year announced a $3.1 billion military and economic package, plus financial assistance for education reforms.

$3.1 billion aid package? Sounds like we're giving them some F-16s. But this isn't the only source of India's military expansion. They're looking at beefing up their navy as well:

Nine offshore naval patrol boats alone, besides the upgrading of Sea Harrier planes and the purchase of C-303 submarine-fired torpedo decoy systems.

All these three are specifically designed for deployment over water and indicate that India will be taking very serious look at enforcing its suzerainty over its immediate neighbourhood other than its land border with Pakistan and China.

This may well be a message to other nations of its intent in the future.

Well, duh. But the important thing is that India is holding its ground and keeping its standard position against our military expansion: " THBPBPTHPT!!"

India began negotiating the purchase of French Mirage 2000-5s, Swedish JAS-39 Gripens or advanced Russian MiG-29s, in addition to an ongoing project to introduce the high-end Russian Sukhois, according to Asia Times.

Just like how they got nukes without our help, the world's largest democracy is perfectly capable of thinking this through and taking care of itself. Which is more than I can say for the State Department.