Monday, August 29, 2011

Say What??!!

I owe the State Department an apology. I rather assumed that the problems in deciding to sell F-16 fighter planes to Taiwan surely rested with a nuanced diplomatic effort to appease China.

I was wrong. Our Department of Defense is the guilty party:

The Defense Department recently confirmed that it’s blocking the sale of 66 F-16 C/D fighters that Taiwan had wanted to buy to update its air force.

The author goes on to discuss problems that will flow from lack of future updates to a plane we still use and loss of jobs. His point that Taiwan will just buy planes from someone else misses the point that nobody else is willing to sell Taiwan planes.

But the biggest point is that the Defense Department is blocking the sale. Why?! This is insane. Why on God's Earth would our Defense Department block a sale that helps hold the line for us in the western Pacific? Without Taiwan bottling up the Chinese fleet, the Chinese will be free to move out to sea with less worry about their survival just leaving port.

The days are gone when the Department of Defense can look down on the pansies at State.

UPDATE: Thanks to Mad Minerva for the link. Sorry I was the one to break the news ...