Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Brahma: surge, bribe and run in afghanistan

http://chellaney.spaces.live.com/Blog/cns!4913C7C8A2EA4A30!945.entry

Dr. Chellaney is on the money as always

the yanks have had enough in afghanistan, but cannot be seen as crying for mommy. hence the next best thing "Declare victory and go home" to paraphrase the memorable George Aiken. only in this case they will bribe, declare victory and then go home.

india should not send troops to afghanistan. if we do so - we will be left holding america's second tar-baby.

2 comments:

san said...

I hear what you're saying, but I think that India's only hope is to take the war to Pak by supporting wars of liberation in places like Baluchistan. Going to Afghanistan would give us access to the border with Baluchistan that we need. So the point of going to Afghanistan would not be to just sit there, hold the line, and absorb further guerrilla attacks. The point would be to go there, and use it as a launchpad for sending guerrillas across the border into Balochistan and other parts. As they say, the best defense is a good offense. Otherwise, the only offense plan I'm hearing about is if we can just launch some pinprick aircraft strikes. (even Bush once joked about the futility of using a $2million missile to blow up a $10 tent or mud hut.)

san said...

Furthermore, we wouldn't be left holding the bag, since we'd be able to withdraw ourselves, if need be. We'd be stationing our troops in the non-Pashtun north, where Taliban is hated, so we'd be relatively okay. We'd be spending our time training more Afghan troops and police to take on the duties of fighting the militants alongside the Western forces. I'd also like to see us train Baloch, Sindhis, and even Pashtun tribes who oppose Pak. Sitting around doing nothing, as we are now, leaves us nowhere - except on a path to doom.