Wed, 11 Dec 2002
Irresponsible Capitalism
Somebody hand Vladimir Putin a Clue: he urgently needs one.
Russia has a cash flow problem. To deal with this, Russia exports toys to
the rest of the world. But I hope I'm not the only reader of Pravda who
thinks that exporting NUCLEAR-CAPABLE STRATEGIC BOMBERS to INDIA
is a bad idea.
Sorry for shouting: it's just that India is a nuclear power that lacks
really effective delivery platforms. It's at daggers-drawn with Pakistan,
a nuclear power that lacks really effective delivery platforms. Eyeball
to hairy eyeball confrontations between nuclear powers -- especially ones
who have been at war five times in the past half century -- are not
rendered more secure by selling 'em supersonic bombers capable of low
altitude penetration and delivering nuclear weapons at long range.
Compared to the sale of Tu-22M Backfires, I could almost forgive them
for selling the Indian navy a bunch of Akula-class nuclear powered
hunter-killer submarines and a load of strike fighters. But the Tu-22M
(assuming the bombers are the 22M, and not the earlier and
hopelessly obsolete Tu-22 Blinder -- Pravda is unclear) is a scary
toy to be selling to guys who think nuking their north-eastern neighbours
is a good idea.
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