America’s Arms Bazaar Comes To New Delhi
By Swaraaj Chauhan • Oct 1st, 2009 • Category: Politics • 4 CommentsAs the cartoon above says, War is Big Business. This major issue is discussed, if at all, in passing by the mainstream media. Newspapers in India’s capital city had to borrow a news story from The Washington Post that “major US arms suppliers are wooing Indian defence agents and officials.”
Emily Wax of The Washington Post continues: Almost every weekend, there are cocktails and closed-door presentations in the suites of New Delhi’s five-star hotels, hosted by retired admirals and generals from the US armed forces who now work for defence firms, such as Raytheon and Northrop Grumman.
“At the US embassy in New Delhi, defence contractors such as Northrop Grumman are sponsoring little league baseball teams, the companies’ names stitched onto the uniforms.
” ‘America’s relationship to India is maturing and expanding. India is an important global player now,’ said William S. Cohen, a defense secretary during the Clinton administration who is a member of the U.S.-India Business Council’s board of directors.
“India plans to spend an estimated $100 billion on defense over the next decade to modernize its Soviet-era arsenal. The country that spawned the (Mahatma) Gandhian principles of nonviolence now has a shopping list that includes 126 fighter jets, 155mm howitzers, long-range maritime reconnaissance aircraft, vast cargo planes used in long-distance conflicts, high-tech helicopters and deep-water submarines.
“Boeing is vying with Lockheed — along with French, Russian and Swedish companies and a European consortium — for a fighter jet deal worth about $10 billion. India is holding flight tests for the fighter jets. Lockheed and Boeing have conducted demonstration flights for Indian celebrities and defense experts.”
The Huffington Post carries this article “Recession Is Dangerously Good for the Arms Business”. The author states: “The New York Times reported that the problem is growing. According to a study by the Congressional Research Service, ‘Conventional Arms Transfers to Developing Nations,’ the United States market-share in the international arms trade — already the world’s largest of course — is growing considerably.
“Our military-industrial complex therefore stands to benefit not only from wars we ourselves wage, but also those of our client states. This is nothing new; U.S. industry has long profited from the conflicts of others. But, in today’s desperate economic times, such practices can proudly display themselves as ‘recession-proof’ devices of recovery.
“And it certainly seems safer to depend on other people’s wars than on our own.”
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Simple USA formula.
Sell or provide some “junk” weapons to Pak for a couple of millions or free of cost.
Provide economic assistance to Pak know fully well that the aid will be used to buy weapons.
Then sell billions of dollars of weapons to India to counter those Paki weapons.
Also , use corporate media to create a “Chinese threat” ………and sell weapons to India(without proper technology transfer).
We should worry.
What India needs
What India needs is greater co-operation with our time tested ally Russia and focus on Self Reliance.
Also Indian needs to feed its 800 million population below USD2 per day,Stop corruption and anarchy in the east.
Stop Hindu fundamentalism
Stop killing female feutus.
Stop sidelining minorities.
Stop making Paki their scapegoat.
Stop lying about economic achiements.
Give Kashimiris their rights, and stp raping their women.
Stop winning in Cricket (oops already done that) thks
USD $2, roughly Rs.100 a day buys decent breakfast, lunch and dinner for a family of 4, apart from their rent so don’t under estimate $2. Do you know the government sells rice at Rs.2 per kg so if they eat 5 kgs a day, it would only cost them Rs.10? Indian government is doing a lot for it’s poor and things are definitely improving, whether slowly or not.
Someone said the country found on Gandhian principles is buying arms. What a ridiculous and idiotic statement, can only come from a Paki. Who said a country should not protect itself and even if we follow non-violence, evil countries like Pakistan will not lie low and sponsor more terrorists. Anyway, idiots will keep barking and India will keep on progressing while the evil despotic countries like Pakistan keep plunging into self destruction!