Gwynne Dyer - The US-Indian Military Alliance
The neo-conservatives who run American foreign policy under Mr. Bush are determined to build a ring of alliances around China
tehrantimes: America's Indian sidekick
by Gwynne Dyer
Chances are you won't hear a single word about U.S.-Indian military links in the mainstream media's reporting about U.S. President George W. Bush's first visit to India. For months the media in both countries have been encouraged to speculate about whether a deal on U.S.-Indian cooperation on civilian nuclear power would be ready in time for Bush's visit, but that deal is just the quid pro quo. The actual "quo" was a de facto military alliance between India and the United States, but we don't talk about that in front of the children.
"The largest democracy in the world and the oldest democracy in the world are becoming strategic partners, and that is a very consequential development in international politics," said U.S. Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns on 24 February after a visit to New Delhi. "Consequential" is the right word. The two countries that will have the world's second- and third-largest economies a generation from now have made an alliance against the country that will have the biggest economy, China -- but hardly anybody in the media seems to have noticed.
It's not secret. The joint U.S.-Indian military training exercises of the past few years and the arms sales that are now eagerly awaited by American defense industry are public knowledge (but only if you have been paying close attention). Indian Defense Minister Pranab Mukherjee went to Washington in person last June to sign the ten-year agreement on military cooperation and joint weapons production with the United States. It's just that talking too loudly about all this would upset the Chinese, and it would upset some people in the United States, too. Not everybody in Washington welcomes the idea of a military alliance to "contain" China.
So let's pretend our priorities are elsewhere, and send the press chasing off down the wrong path. Read more
tehrantimes: America's Indian sidekick
by Gwynne Dyer
Chances are you won't hear a single word about U.S.-Indian military links in the mainstream media's reporting about U.S. President George W. Bush's first visit to India. For months the media in both countries have been encouraged to speculate about whether a deal on U.S.-Indian cooperation on civilian nuclear power would be ready in time for Bush's visit, but that deal is just the quid pro quo. The actual "quo" was a de facto military alliance between India and the United States, but we don't talk about that in front of the children.
"The largest democracy in the world and the oldest democracy in the world are becoming strategic partners, and that is a very consequential development in international politics," said U.S. Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns on 24 February after a visit to New Delhi. "Consequential" is the right word. The two countries that will have the world's second- and third-largest economies a generation from now have made an alliance against the country that will have the biggest economy, China -- but hardly anybody in the media seems to have noticed.
It's not secret. The joint U.S.-Indian military training exercises of the past few years and the arms sales that are now eagerly awaited by American defense industry are public knowledge (but only if you have been paying close attention). Indian Defense Minister Pranab Mukherjee went to Washington in person last June to sign the ten-year agreement on military cooperation and joint weapons production with the United States. It's just that talking too loudly about all this would upset the Chinese, and it would upset some people in the United States, too. Not everybody in Washington welcomes the idea of a military alliance to "contain" China.
So let's pretend our priorities are elsewhere, and send the press chasing off down the wrong path. Read more
posted by exoplanet at 12:47 AM
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