And he praises the reinforced operation by Pak military in Wana.
Powell arrives; meets Musharraf, Jamali today
ISLAMABAD: US Secretary of State Colin Powell arrived in here on Wednesday for talks on nuclear proliferation, the al-Qaeda hunt and peace with India.
On Thursday, Powell will meet President Pervez Musharraf, Prime Minister Zafarullah Jamali and Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri before heading to the Middle East. He flew into the capital on board a US military plane at around 6:00 pm after a one-day visit to Kabul.
Powell's announced that he's going to begin the process of Pakistan getting officially designated as a major US non-NATO military ally.
As recently as 1 year ago I would have been strongly in favour of this, but should peace with India turn into a reality then I would be deeply worried of us being used merely as a tool to contain our close friend, China.
If peace with India comes, then we will have no need of the military power a formalised alliance with the USA would give us, no need to be close to them and distant from China.
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*Originally posted by mufakkar: *
^ Does this mean we are going to get some new warbirds/some upgrades on our equipment or is this just a cosmetic gesture?
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It means we can buy buy just about anything that the USA has except for cruise missiles, ballistic missiles and stealth technology.
In reality, with India finally becoming receptive to peace talks, I would question whether we actually have an urgent need to buy modern weaponry from the USA.
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*Originally posted by mAd_ScIeNtIsT: *
If peace with India comes, then we will have no need of the military power a formalised alliance with the USA would give us, no need to be close to them and distant from China.
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Mark Twain says about the banker-client relationship; "a banker is a man who lends you an umbrella when the weather is fair and takes it away when it rains".
My dear fellow, the pak-american realtions can be compared with the relationship between a banker and his client.
Beware Pakistan! There's always a falling trap at the end of american friendship.
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no man... stealth ghulail, what did u think?
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Pir Sahib khair to hay? One zinger after another :D I meant are we going to GET stuff instead of BUYING stuff. I mean in KM Arif's book "Working with Zia" he says that we were offered F-16s but the foreign office suggested that we pay for them up front so that we could maintain our Non-aligned posture. SO my question was are we going to have to pay for military goodies or will we be "financed"?