Fareed Zakaria advises the US to keep pressing on Pakistan.
Fareed Zakaria hails the only foreign policy success of Obama administration, Pakistan. But ends his piece with a huge warning and a friendly advice.
There are some who believe that Pakistan has changed its basic strategy and now understands that it should cut its ties to these [...]
India is ideally suited to provide the military trainers that NATO needs in Afghanistan.
Afghanistan needs more military trainers — NATO has been able to provide only 541 out of 1278 trainers needed for the growing Afghan Army and Police forces — and they aren’t getting them from anywhere. Pakistan has been rather keen to provide [...]
Only one reason — ensure the security and well-being of its citizens, thereby providing them with a better life.
Amidst all the hype over Indian involvement in Afghanistan and lamentations over declining India influence in that country, here is a quick check of the possible reasons that drive India’s continued interest in Afghanistan.
Let us start with [...]
First, organised stone pelting and now, outsourced terror strikes.
Stone pelting by protesters during demonstrations is not a new thing. Over the past decades, our drawing rooms have been satiated with images beamed from all over the world — places in Europe, South East Asia, West Asia and South America easily come to the mind — [...]
India needs a holistic, well-crafted response that balances its short-term, mid-term and long-term goals vis-à-vis Pakistan.
The jehadis have struck again on the Indian mainland; this time in Pune, albeit more than a year after the horrendous terror attacks on Mumbai in November 2008. The initial response, while going with the most plausible and popular assumption [...]
Why India’s offer of bilateral talks with Pakistan is a really bad idea?
The Acorn is known to choose his words carefully. So when he sets out to welcome the impending Indo-Pak talks, albeit cautiously and with a big caveat in tow, one has to sit up and take notice. His only rationale for welcoming the [...]
British have made the mistake of paying the enemy earlier and still not learned their lessons.
From the At War blog of the New York Times:
There is talk of paying Afghan tribes to give up violence and stop fighting the American-led NATO forces in Afghanistan.
This brings to mind a poem by Rudyard Kipling about [...]
More than the television coverage of the Srinagar terror attack, it is the editorial opinion surrounding it that is objectionable.
Terrorits stage a bloody comeback in J&K after partial withdrawl of army from the velley. fidyeens kill policeman.
So tweeted Prabhu Chawla [Twitter is a great excuse for bad spellings] in the evening when the terrorists had [...]
Why do terror incidents in India that are counted refer only to Pakistan-backed Islamist terrorist attacks in major urban centres outside Jammu & Kashmir?
An error is simply a failure to adjust immediately from a preconception to an actuality.~John Cage
At the turn of the year, Ajai Sahni critically examines the hugely publicised statement — “no terror [...]
National Conference has lost an opportunity by failing to politically mobilise its cadres to protest the murder of a 21-year old girl by terrorists in Shopian.
The alleged rape of two women in Shopian earlier this year has been in the spotlight for too long now. Even after the CBI has reported its findings disproving the [...]
Pratap Bhanu Mehta makes a valid case for engaging Pakistan, but there have to be other prongs in the strategy.
In today’s Indian Express, India’s foremost columnist Pratap Bhanu Mehta makes a case against Indian military involvement in Afghanistan. He instead asks India to make bold attempts to engage larger Pakistani public opinion to meet Indian [...]
Differing outcomes to similar importance of Russia and India to US interests in Afghanistan.
Well, Holbrooke might not have been welcome in India for some months now but he and his team have been in Beijing and Moscow in buildup to the Obama announcement. Russia’s importance to the US efforts in Afghanistan is not limited to [...]
Some essential readings on the first anniversary of Mumbai terror attacks.
Amidst the plethora of articles, blogposts, columns and news-items written in the print and the electronic media on the first anniversary of the Mumbai terror attacks, here is my selection of eminently read-worthy material from the lot.
Pratap Bhanu Mehta in the Indian Express and Nitin [...]
Union Home Minister’s arguments for amending the AFSPA are prudent.
Anyone who makes an honest effort to understand the background of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act [AFSPA] will find it extremely hard to disagree with Union Home Minister, P. Chidambaram.
On AFSPA – the Justice Jeevan Reddy Committee recommended repealing it. If they had stopped there, [...]
The average Pakistani soldier has already psychologically crossed over to the Jehadi side. It is impossible to convince him to undertake military action against his co-religionist brethren.
New York Times eventually discovers, albeit belatedly, that the average Pakistani is not ready to believe that their home grown jehadis could be behind the recent spate of terror [...]
This is actually not merely about a cricket match between two lowly placed teams in the Plate division of the Ranji Trophy. It is much more than it, with all the political implications and messages that such an event in Srinagar conveys. The foremost among them is to shatter all the claims of the state government about a return of normalcy to the state.
Different institutional responses to 1962 and Sri Lanka 1987.
From the NYT Sunday Book Review of The Fourth Star – Four Generals and the Epic Struggle for the Future of the United States Army:
As an institution, the United States Army has much more in common with, say, a giant corporation like General Motors than with a [...]
Sending troops to Afghanistan is a valid strategic option for India.
There’s a fine line between fishing and standing on the shore like an idiot. ~Steven Wright
In two separate op-ed pieces today, former army chief General Shankar Roychowdhury and defence analyst Ajai Shukla try to find ways for India to influence the events in Afghanistan. Roychowdhury [...]
Why US should stay the course in Afghanistan?
Steve Coll of the New Yorker, at his blog Think Tank, makes a fist of a very difficult job: to explain that besides exterminating al Qaeda, South Asia — and India in particular — is the reason for the US to stay committed in Afghanistan.
The United States has [...]
McChrystal’s report warns of Pakistani retaliation to Indian influence in Afghanistan.
From the much-reported COMISAF initial assessment of the war in Afghanistan submitted by General Stanley A. McChrystal to Obama administration:
Indian political and economic influence is increasing in Afghanistan, including significant development efforts and financial investment. In addition, the current Afghan government is perceived by Islamabad [...]
Visitants annotate…