the elephant in the living room is pakistan. neither bush nor manmohan 'piss-process' singh talked about pakistan being the real thorn in the flesh.
the white woman from the FT mouths the usual inanities about the valued ally in the war against terrorists. that should be shortened to 'valued terrorist'. musharraf is -- according to the yanks -- their enforcer in the region, keeping india vulnerable and pliable. they expect to toss aside musharraf like a used condom one of these days. but musharraf has other plans. maybe a reprise of 9/11 if his own butt is on the line?
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Ram
REDIFF INDIA ABROAD
T C A Srinivasa-Raghavan
How to judge the Bush visit
February 25, 2006
It is never easy to formulate a set of criteria for judging the success or
otherwise of a visit by a US President to India. So don't believe what
you read in the two weeks after George Bush leaves on March 4.
Those who say it was a great success will be exaggerating. And those
who say it was dismal failure will also be exaggerating.
...
_____________________________________________
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1060225/asp/opinion/story_5890785.asp
THE TELEGRAPH, FEBRUARY 25, 2006
BETWEEN FRIENDS
- India cannot ignore the link between
Pakistan and the US
Sunanda K. Datta-Ray
The delightful double entendre of Chakravarti Rajagopalachari's
comment as Union home minister to a visiting Afghan premier
in January 1951 could be repeated next week to George W.
Bush. "It is no secret that our foreign policy holds
Indo-Afghan friendship to be essential; and when we two
are bound in friendship we will squeeze anyone in between
in the same embrace of affection — a pincer movement for
peace, so to speak," Rajaji said wickedly.
Not that Bush with his call for a trilateral approach to Iran
— which really means India and Pakistan toeing the
United States of America — will see Pakistan as the
kebab ki haddi in the "strategic partnership" announced
last July. But relations with India, which have improved
incrementally under him, will not achieve the fruition Bush
outlined to the Asia Society unless he can bring himself to
review in light of contemporary compulsions a patron- protégé
bond that was forged in the crucible of Cold War expediency.
Even the July 18 agreement, which seems to have mesmerized
Indians, is far less a matter of life and death than the unseen
enemy who attacks from three neighbouring countries and
whose agents are scattered among a billion Indians.
...
____________________________________________
THE FINANCIAL TIMES
How much longer can General
Musharraf last?
Katherine Butler, Feb 22, 2006
A key ally of Washington in the "war on terror", Pakistan appears to
be headed by a benign modernizer who stands as a bulwark against
religious extremism in this strategically vital region. In the sprawling
capital, Islamabad, the institutions of state sit in white marble
palaces, the wheels of government appear to function, boys
play cricket in every available green space. The Western-educated
elite returned in big numbers after 9/11 and house prices are
booming. But beneath the veneer, the reality is a fragile,
sectarianised, radicalised and failing state. And at its head
is a military dictator on American life-support, who is now in
danger of being toppled in a rising swell of anti-Western protest.
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