Oh dear, nick, oh dear

be beautiful

An "uncoward".

Florence, I am just getting frustrated. All I have asked for from people is a bit of balance, and all I get from some is another anti-American rant.

Cool, I thought I must be on to something.

As I said, all I am after is some even handedness.

Interesting article from the current issue of Private Eye. Apologies for any typos, they're mine as the article isn't online!

Letter from Delhi

There are 400 million of us living in poverty. But we are not short of money when it comes to defending ourselves.

British Aerospace recently picked up a USD1.8bn contract for 66 ageing Hawk trainers, while the defence ministry plans to spend a further USD1.2bn on three Israeli airborne warning systems and a Russian I11-76 plane to carry them.

Further mega-deals are in the pipeline. Russia, our preferred supplier since the Soviet days, looks set to cash in. Our navy will buy the 'Admiral Gorshkov' aircraft carrier for USD700m and lease two nuclear subs for an estimated USD400m. It will also spend USD1bn on MiG29 fighters.

Officials say that all this hardware will strengthen our nuclear deterrence. But it's hardly likely to be seen in that way in Packistan or China, neighbours with whom we have been locked in border disputes for so long. They were already uneasy over the USD6bn spent by the Indian air force over the past five years on new aircraft, helicopters, weapons and radar systems - mostly from Moscow, but also including a USD328m contract with the peace-loving French.

Indeed the French aircraft manufacturer Mirage has high hopes of a USD4.4bn contract for new fighters. On the water, France is also close to a submarine deal that could be worth USD700m. By contrast, the US, so much more robust than our Gallic friends on the merits of military hardware in international problem-solving in recent times, lags some way behind.

Lat year the US's big sale was 12 artillery fire finder radars for just USD142m. Nor is it in the running for our army's planned re-equipment programme. South Africa is hoping for a slice of a massive contract for self-propelled howitzers - and so crucial is the deal to the country's ailing defence industry that President Thabo Mbeki travelled to Delhi recently in an attempt to cement it.

(The article continues on political issues.)

I am not a fan of the Yanks, especially the current administration, but as Nick said, there must be even-handedness in the argument and I found this article very interesting, particularly with respect to the hypocritical Frogs!

Edited by Moose (16 Dec 2003 11:44am)

Goodness is what you do. Not who you pray to.

Interesting the way they say at the end: "Don't hate us because we're Americans, just hate our Government".

Pretty ironic, really, considering the maxim: "Government of the people, for the people and by the people".

Either collective schizophrenia or some serious dissent from the Declaration of Independence.

This America stuff is boring me now. Who's up for searching the net for articles about the levels of corruption in other countries? I'm actually quite interested to talk about it on another thread. Any offers? Zimbabwe? Northern Ireland? Australia? I'll be interested to see if my point is proved!

Edited by Penge Eagle (16 Dec 2003 1:44pm)