Yeah, I still don’t understand the Pakistan thing. Pakistan:
harbored Osama bin Laden
has pretty uninteresting economic output
has serious beef with their much larger neighbor India, and are somewhat friendly with Iran and China
Whereas India:
has a ton of people
already has pretty extensive economic ties to the US, which could be strengthened, and is a ripe alternative to China for production
has tensions w/ China, so we have mutual enemies
is highly unlikely to harbor any of our enemies
Yet we keep them at arm’s length.
I could say the same for Israel and Saudi Arabia. Why are we so intent on picking the worst possible countries in a given region? The only explanation is that we want war…
More like India remembers our position in the cold war and doesn’t have any desire to be beholden to us. Doesn’t matter if it’s the Hindutva or INC, neither are friendly to US hegemony. I’d hold the same position if I was them of course. I mean we still embargo Cuba for fucks sake.
Pakistan doesn’t export any oil, and while they have discovered oil reserves, western companies aren’t interested due to security concerns. So it’s not oil.
Yeah, I still don’t understand the Pakistan thing. Pakistan:
Whereas India:
Yet we keep them at arm’s length.
I could say the same for Israel and Saudi Arabia. Why are we so intent on picking the worst possible countries in a given region? The only explanation is that we want war…
Sunk-cost fallacy stemming from Cold War-era choices.
Yeah, my guess is that since they have nukes, we feel obligated to keep them close so those nukes don’t end up in the wrong hands.
More like India remembers our position in the cold war and doesn’t have any desire to be beholden to us. Doesn’t matter if it’s the Hindutva or INC, neither are friendly to US hegemony. I’d hold the same position if I was them of course. I mean we still embargo Cuba for fucks sake.
This the same India that’s been spending the past 20 years cozying up to us? And vice-versa, of course, we’ve been very interested in India as well.
Pakistan is the major stumbling block remaining, not the policy of half a century ago.
religion and oil are the basic reasons, aren’t they?
Pakistan doesn’t export any oil, and while they have discovered oil reserves, western companies aren’t interested due to security concerns. So it’s not oil.
I just don’t see it.
I think Pakistan had important oil pipelines, but am not at all sure