Times Square tragedy: The euphoria in Delhi was

lived
The Editors | May 15, 2010 at 4:01 pm | Categories: Current Affairs | URL:
http://wp.me/p8qeu-7LU

Independence Day celebration came in a few weeks early to Delhi. You can hear the firecrackers
and the jubilation in Delhi. The happiness is mind-bending. No one could have thought that
tragedy could bring so much jubilation in a country far from the scene of the accident. A chorus
Indian think tanks and politicians and media pundits have come out of the woodwork to bring
singing their old tunes. The old scripts have been brushed up and old wine put into new bottles.
The Bharatis (aka Indians) who were hibernating after taking Prozaic and other Anti-depressant
are all out in full force like the first light of spring brings out the bats after a long wintry night.

One imbecilic, one called journalist can even hear the "screws turn" after Clinton's inane foot in
mouth crass comments. Clinton spoke and and as if one cue the wave started in Bharat. The old
hackneyed tales of "bad bad bad Pakistanis" were all brought out. Delhi was an orchestra of
Pakistanphobia it was if the entire nation was singing the Nazi salute to the grand Aryan race.

After facing the debacles in Tehran, Istanbul and London, this was the first time the Delhi
pundits had much to say about Afghanistan. The gloom and doom had caused a depression.
Many were planning wakes, and the staff in the Bharati Consulates in Afghanistan had their bags
packed waiting for orders to evacuate.

Once again the Bharatis will tried to change US policy.

It must have come as a big disappointment when Ms. Hillary Clinton toned down her rhetoric
and and Richard Holbrooke disclaimed what she had said--claiming that she had been misquoted.
President Obama's kind words, General McChrystal's affirmation of Islamabad, and the Stater
Department's positive assessment of Pakistani efforts validated by Mrs. Clinton must have acted
like fire hose on a firecracker--dousing Delhi's hopes of building a bonfire out of Pakistani
corpses.

When President Obama stood next to President Karzai and both confirmed that a Pan-Afghan
solution is in the best interests of Afghanistan, Delhi must have shrugged and put up their arms
in the air. Nothing, not even a drama in Times Square could derail the US Administrations
resolve to exit Afghanistan. That face-saving exit is not possible without Pakistan.

Delhi seems to miss that point.

Perhaps Bharati politicians should look at the map if they can. No, not the one presented to them
in the mandirs, the real ones. Pakistan has a contiguous border with Afghanistan. Bharat does
not.

Delhi seems to miss that point.

Its harder to get out of a war then to get in. Its fantastic to have an exit strategy. A lone wolf
madman cannot derail the strategy and let the US continue on the suicide path as directed by
Delhi.

The US goals for Afghanistan are not amorphous--they are crystal clear. The US has decimated
Al-Qaeda. Pakistan has taken back Swat and Waziristan. American now wants Mr. Karzai to
reconcile with the Afghan Taliban so that a fatigued NATO, a tired ISAF and a bankrupt to US
can pack their bags and leave the graveyard of empires.

The US has a clear exit date in mind. What part of the strategy does Bharat not understand?

From a strategic perspective the failed bombing by a depressed and total nincompoop who may
or may not have help from the evil lands did not amount to much.

It wasn't music to the ears of resident of the Rashpati Bhavan. The US Secretary of Defense
Robert Gates last Friday stated in clear terms that Pakistan was doing the best it can, going on to
explain that "You also have to realise that, with their military operations in the West, they've
started to be pretty thinly stretched themselves, as well as taking a substantial number of
casualties." The 34 strikes in Pakistan, in North Waziristan53 strikes in 2009 and 36 strikes in
2008 show an escalation of the war on the ephemeral "enemy". When the US pushes them in
Waziristan, they will simply melt away into the urban centers where the drones cannot follow
them. The only solution is a halt to the drones and reconciliation with the Taliban at a pace
which has to be rapid and results oriented.
There are serious allegations that the drones cause a great deal of collateral casualties. What they
have managed to do is to severely constrain the militants operating in the region, particularly
their ability to train new recruits. Bharat remains mystified about the role David Coleman
Headley played and why the US is not giving Bharat access to him.

One bad apple in the US is like a Timothy McVeigh or a Jeffery Dahmer. US policy makers
know for a fact that an insane person can go craxzy anywhere.

The US also knows that Shahzad's father was a freind of America and his many books are proof
of his old alliances.

The wild card in South Asia is Bharat--best by caste, penury and poverty, it tries to put on a
veneer of shine, but the cracks show---40% of the landmass is in the hands of the Naxal Maoists,
and there are 89 insurgencies raging in the Northeast, North and Southeast of the country.
Almost every state has militant fighting the government. Half the armed forces of Bharat are tied
up in Kashmir, Assam and the seven sisters are pretty much independent.

The war ignites the Anti-Americanism, and the drones put gasoline on a burning fire. Even the
most rapid Pakistanphobes in Delhi recognize the electoral compulsions and military constraints
of the Obama Administration.

American choices are limited. The US has no option but to go forward with Pakistan at this
juncture. It is now abundantly clear to the world and to the US that Pakistan is extremely
important to its fight against the evil doers.

The Pakistan Army has loudly declared it has ended its operations in South Waziristan and
categorically announced that it is not not going anywhere under pressure from anyone. One wild
factor is the Bharati support for the BLA and the TTP which complicates matters for Pakistan.
There is ample evidence of Delhi's interference in Pakistani affairs, and this has to come to a
stop.

The cockiness of the Bharatis in celebrating over bombs and dancing around Pakistani corpse as
characterized by the many writings in the Bharati press can only be labeled as the mentality of
sick mind.
Recent realism in Delhi overcomes the knee jerk Pakistanphobic reactions--and may have
created some sober thinking in Bharati political circles. Those in Kabul could be a bigger threat
to Delhi than Islamabad ever was. In fact most of the invasions of Delhi began in Kabul and
beyond.

Delhi seems to miss that point.

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