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Born at the Crest of the Empire

Saturday, July 07, 2007

Echoes of a different time.

Reading this, I wonder if there were similar articles and "concerns" expressed to the US during the early days of the Soviet presence in Afghanistan.
The US has raised concerns with the Chinese government about the discovery of Chinese-made weapons in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Richard Lawless, departing senior Pentagon official for Asia, on Friday said Washington had flagged the issue with Beijing. In recent months, the US has become increasingly alarmed that Chinese armour-piercing ammunition has been used by the Taliban in Afghanistan and insurgents in Iraq.

A senior US official recently told the FT that Iran appeared to be providing the Chinese-made weapons. He said Washington had no evidence that Beijing was complicit, but stressed that the US would like China to “do a better job of policing these sales”. Mr Lawless said the question of origin was less important than who was facilitating the transfer.

Years before the open transfers of Stinger missiles, the US began its operations to arm and organize the Afghan resistance through Saudi and Pakistani cutouts using the religious schools and the ISI. The premise behind the US effort was not to defeat the Soviets in Afghanistan, but instead to tie them down in their own Vietnam.

This is not evidence the Chinese are following along the same path as Chinese AK's, ammo, mortars, etc. flow cheaply around the world, but I wanted to introduce the idea as a possibility.

If the Chinese could assist in tying down the US in another Vietnam, would they? Is that in their interest?

3 Comments:

  • I don't think they would try to strategically tie-down the US in another Viet Nam. However, they will sell weapons to anyone and everyone without regard for who they will be used against (the possible caveat being they would probably avoid arming those who they consider a direct threat).

    Furthermore, since they provide weapons to so many players around the world, a sort of low-level instability and drawn out conflicts plays to their favor. They have no interest in diffusing such conflicts, but I doubt they are actively encouraging them.

    By Blogger Praguetwin, at 7:10 AM  

  • (This is a separate and unrelated comment about the blog itself. I love the blog and love to read it for all the information it contains.

    But am I the only one who finds the light-blue-on-white color scheme difficult to read? Would it be possible to replace the light blue linked type with a font or color that's easier for my regrettably aging eyes to focus on?)

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 9:02 AM  

  • Praguetwin, China's in a really weird spot because the US is both their chief rival and chief customer.

    I think I would agree that it is in their interests to sow some level of discord in the world to gin up dissatisfaction with the US so they can move in with trade deals, support, etc. That's an interesting argument.

    (And I wonder within the politics of China how influential some of these arms makers are. You figure they must be connected and bribe alot.)

    ....

    Local, I went with the white early on just because it looked clean. I'm aware that it's a bit harder to read. I'll look into changing the excerpt color, it can't be too hard. I've pretty much just gone with the blogger template.

    However, the white background is non-negotiable because it lets the pictures stand out better.

    (Oh, and it's also a function of monitor settings. I tend to keep my monitor pretty dim, so it's probably not as noticable to me.)

    Thanks, I do appreciate it. There are many things I can't read because they're that awful white on black. I'll look into it soon.

    By Blogger mikevotes, at 1:48 PM  

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