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2005-03-25 17:07 UTC US to sell arms to yet another military dictator

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US to sell arms to yet another military dictator

One might perhaps think that while in the middle of the quagmires of violence that are Afghanistan and Iraq under the guise of "promoting democracy", the US government would at least pretend they actually mean what they say, and not offer F-16s to Pakistan in a move that risk destabilising a highly volatile region (India has already started making objections), a country still dealing with the aftermath of Musharraf's coup and is still suffering from massive civil rights abuses and where the military still holds a significant amount of power over civil life.

But I guess one shouldn't expect anything else, seeing as the practice of providing arms support to people such as Saddam Hussein has a long history with the US government.

Update: Just a quick note before I get any comments above it: Yes I am aware Musharraf held a referendum and election a couple of years back, no I'm not impressed. The election was marred by lots of irregularities, and while I'm sure he does he have some level of public support, to me the fact that he is in his current position thanks to a coup and that he's showed repeated unwillingness of relinquishing his power makes the elections moot - he belongs in jail, not in office. Anything else is an affront to democratic principles.



About me

E-mail: vidar@hokstad.com Skype: vhokstad
Twitter: vhokstad
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I was born April 21st, 1975, in Oslo, Norway. Since 2000 I've been living in London, UK. I'm married and we just had our first child, Tristan Ikemefuna Hokstad.

I'm working for Aardvark Media as Director of Technology. I'm also currently on the board of SpatialQ, a startup in the GIS space, and an advisor to Skoach, a startup doing a time management app for people with ADD.

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