Saturday, March 04, 2006

**Two veteran journalists reflect on the Pakistan factor in US-India relations

mar 3rd

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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