Hezbollah didn’t start the war, Israel did when they changed the objective of their military response from rescueing captured soilders to destroying Hezbollah. Anyways, when has any democraticlly elected government ever held a referendum to see if they were to wage war? Hardly a fair criticism.

So, Hezbollah didn’t cross the international boundary and attack an Israeli Army patrol and kill and capture Israeli soldiers? Oh, I see, Israel is using this incident to further other objectives is what grinds people the wrong way. Understandable. :diablo:

During wartime conditions, the onus to prevent civilian casualties lie with all the warring factions. It is as much Israel’s responsibility to minimize civilian casualties as it is the Hezbollah’s. The fact that Hezbollah actively uses Lebanese civilians as shields and targets Israeli civilians actively means that they have completely reneged on its responsibilities to minimize civilian casualties. If Hezbollah has so obviously reneged on its responsibilities, what binds Israel to those same responsibilities.

There are multiple pies for the US to choose from, one of them being this fighter competition. Other very lucrative pies the US has its fingers in are the army’s light utility and armed scout helo competition, in which the Bell 407 is a contender. Another is the IN’s MPA, where the P-8 (with Indian mods) seems to be the front runner. While the 16-20 SH-60s was mentioned as a possible replacement for the Sea Kings (Mk 42s).

That’s about $8 – $15 billion in pies/carrots that India has dangling out there in just mil equipment. Plus there were reports in the press that there’re $40 billion worth of nuke power plant contracts out there, of course only if the nuke deal is passed. SO, it’s not totally accurate to say that the fighter competition is what the US is looking to win. Both the US and India can cherry pick.

Although licence production of MMRCA in India should reduce the unit cost, this would be somewhat counterbalanced by ToT/Licence fee etc.

Don’t be too sure of it being cheaper in India. A totally new assembly line and other infrastructure facilities have to be developed in India which will add to the cost: A report claimed that it costs more to produce the MKI in India than it does in Russia.

Eliminate the player, another will fill its place. The game, the US political lobbying system, is what’s broken.

Remember during the Clinton years accusations came that one of the largest contributors to the Clinton political fund were the Chinese? It’s the game, rather the rules of the game, that’s broken. As long as the rules allow for AIPAC, Boeing, Moveon, etc to “donate” money in the sums that they do, the game will be played.

It has to do with lobbysits. . .

Don’t hate the playa, hate the game 🙂

They or their fathers weren’t neither born in Israel, nor have ever owned something there, not even seen a piece of it before they came in.

You have unwittingly hit upon the perfect solution the problem! Take the Palestinians and scatter them accross the EU and in a couple of generations, the Palestinians will fit your criteria (“They or their fathers weren’t neither born in Israel, nor have ever owned something there”) and will not have any rights to the land in the Mid East any more. Perfect!