Should America ditch Pakistan for India?

[KrazyHorse]

Our Freemason leaders knew better than to "hide" **** on our money.

[Drake Tungsten]

Dude, we both know the treasure of the Templars is under NYC. The Canuck Freemasons didn't hide clues on their money because they had nothing worth hiding clues to.

[KrazyHorse]

Sure they did. Like where the **** they left the buggy last night before they hit the taverns.

[Guynemer]

Back on topic, I have a real hard time rationalizing our foreign relations with the countries on the subcontinent. India seems like a natural ally, one which only growing more powerful. Pakistan, however, is relatively stagnant, and lacks many of our national values. On the surface, this is inexplicable.

[KrazyHorse]

There was a topic?

[Drake Tungsten]

Back on topic, I have a real hard time rationalizing our foreign relations with the countries on the subcontinent.

Dude, it's not that complicated. If Pakistan collapses and goes Islamist, our asses get nuked. That's a pretty compelling reason to keep sending aid to Pakistan, no matter how ****ty the ISI acts.

Now let's get back to the more interesting topic of Canadian Freemasons.

[Arrian]

I think we're worried about Pak's nukes, and figure if we really get in bed with India, they might do something incredibly stupid.

Also, it may be that it's comparatively easy to just buy off Pakistan when we want something. India, not so much...

?

-Arrian

[Felch]

There was a topic?

Officially I needed a topic, but bashing Britain was always the hidden agenda. I'm very subtle.

[Drake Tungsten]

I also don't understand why some of you think the US isn't building an alliance with India when we gave them a sweetheart nuclear deal a few years back and Manmohan Singh was just in DC for the first official state dinner of the Hopenchange era.

[DinoDoc]

On the surface, this is inexplicable.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-Aligned_Movement

Historically that's been the reason.

[KrazyHorse]

Guynemer, the US values the friendship of China more than that of India. India has a relatively weak military and central government, and for the foreseeable future will be poorer than China. China and India are natural antagonists. The US doesn't lose anything by being cool toward India. What can the Indians do to help the US? They aren't strong enough to help with Pakistan's internal problems (which is the number 1 priority of the US). Even with US support they wouldn't be able to dominate Asia against the Chinese. They're nothing.

[Felch]

I'd point out that China has a lot of hidden problems. The central government is often ignored in the provinces, where corruption is the rule. Many corporations are still SOEs, politically protected, and not as efficient as they could be. Rapid growth has led to real estate bubbles and commodity price explosions that cut into profits. The demographic bulge is about to exhaust itself, and their One Child Policy will make supporting an increasingly elderly population very difficult. Widespread discontent, especially among western ethnic minorities, forces the regime to spend tremendous resources on population control.

India has problems, but its problems are transparent. China's problems lie under the surface. I'd say that India has greater long term potential.

[KrazyHorse]

Felch, for every one of China's problems India has a more severe version, EXCEPT when it comes to civil liberties.

The ethnic situation in India is a ****ing mess. China is 90% Han. They tolerate other ethnic groups, but the central government can and does stomp all over dissident groups whenever it wants to. Nobody in India speaks the same ****ing language. It's like a hundred countries jammed into one. India's economic development is far more skewed than China's. There's an extraordinarily small elite which speaks English and can program, and then there's tiny, poor villages where education is almost nonexistent. The Chinese population is far more educated and healthy than the Indian population. The Chinese have corruption problems, but I'm pretty sure that corruption is actually India's biggest industry.

If the Chinese leadership doesn't start to ease off on the artificial push toward increasing industrial capacity then yeah, there are going to be some serious problems coming in the next decade or so. I think that they know this, but I could be wrong.

[Dinner]

South Vietnam was looking good for a while. Hell, the only decent roads in the country are still American built.

[Provost Harrison]

Nice try, Drake, but we don't have any residual guilt in the national consciousness over India just because we're white.

I know full well that the British don't feel any guilt for their colonial legacy, as shameful as it is.

Please refer to my date of birth and stop being a ****wit