Left Flank

Cato Institute's Malou Innocent sums up the problem with the US giving $239 million to Pakistan

While cooperation with Pakistan is crucial, cooperation does not warrant a blank check to Pakistan's army or the upgrading of sophisticated weaponry that only feeds Pakistan's rivalry with India.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice supported the plan in these terms:

«What we are trying to do is solidify and extend relations with both India and Pakistan, at a time when we have good relations with both of them -- something most people didn't think could be done -- and at a time when they have improving relationships with one another,» Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in an interview at The Washington Post.

«If you look at it in terms of the region,» she added, «what we are trying to do is break out of the notion that this is a hyphenated relationship somehow, that anything that happens that is good for Pakistan is bad for India, and vice versa.»

So, how does that fit into the plan to remake India into an American ally in East Asia? Might this be just a little too much for New Delhi? Or, is this all just a really awful cover story to continue both trashing the NPT and IAEA and feeding the ISI?

Finally, can the Bush administration stop itself if it wanted? Could it change both its India and Pakistan policies?

Now that the Bush administration has achieved «something» on the Korean peninsula, perhaps it could do something about Taiwan. But, not just what Beijing wants. Michael Turton's apoplectic response to a Reuters article towing the Communist line,/a> is noteworthy in itself.

It's always worth pointing out: China can bluntly say (1) we're threatening war and (2) we're not going to negotiate even one little bit but you can read in actual analysis from thinking human beings that - I'm not making this up - President Chen Shui-bian of Taiwan is a radical. I suppose, from the point of view of a human history that offers us about 100,000 years of conflict settled by force, that democracy and referendums are a rather radical approach....

Taiwan's president Chen Shui-bien gave a great interview to Der Spiegel, and his response to Beijing is just as dramatic and noteworthy.

SPIEGEL: Your desire to be admitted into the UN would be more likely to succeed if you could come to terms with Beijing - just as the two German nations did 35 years ago.

Chen: We want to negotiate with China, and we see Germany as a model. But for the Chinese there is nothing but the One China policy. Beijing apparently has no interest in dialogue.

SPIEGEL: But you consider reunification with China both possible and desirable?

Chen: We have no way of knowing what will happen in the future. Currently, at any rate, reunification is out of the question.

So, can the US Congress help Taiwan?

...the US Congress, which houses the largest collection of invertebrates outside the Smithsonian, took the State Department to task for its opposition to Taiwan's purchase of F-16s, and sent a resolution through the Committee on the F-16 purchase...

The US opposes the deployment of cruise missiles because they are «offensive weapons» but it wants to sell Taiwan submarines- which it told Taiwan it could not have for the twenty years prior to 2001 - because they were «offensive weapons.» And of course, the 1,000 missiles that China aims at Taiwan receive no attention....I guess they must be defensive weapons.

Seriously, readers, tell me who you think is more dangerous, Taiwan or the PRC?