Jealous? I'm not jealous of the fact that US taxpayers have paid $65 BILLION dollars for approx 120 combat-coded fighter jets. As for very low speed manouverability, haven't you heard the Northrop Grumman chief tell the JSF critics that, "manouverability is now irrelevant" in ATA combat?
Your hope that MY country does not repeat the mistake of not learning from the past is somewhat ironic given that the TFX AND the F-22 debacle is being repeated in spades, only this time for an inherently flawed airplane that will be far less capable than than the Raptor. Still, the politicians in my country don't have any more smarts or integrity than yours, so I'm resigned to the high probability that they will repeat the same mistakes as your guys.
Anyway,despite the prophecies from NG, I'm all for high manouverabilty in fighters, but fun stuff like tail slides, 80 kt high alpha passes, and Pugachev Cobras ARE tactically irrelevant. They are airshow stunts, plain and simple.
JL