America used to blackmail Middle east countries and Saudi by showing them fotos (taken from some satellite) of Iraq army marching towards them and used to earn handsome money. Pakistan doing same thing to America. Showing Taliban pics it is blackmailing USA and draining its resources. By the way US at least have Iraqi and Middle East oil under its command to compensate any loss incurred elsewhere, But once USA leavs, all Pakistan would have is Talibans. So Now Pakistan is all set to become what it wanted to by separating from India. Lets watch the enemy die and enjoy. -Dharmesh Sharma
The comparison of Vietnam with Afghanistan is absolutely ludicrous. FYI the US lost 55000 troops in Vietnam, versus 935 till date in Afghanistan. Rajeev forgets the TET offensive where the NVA launched division level assaults on US troops. The NVA had a functional airforce with Mig 19s, it had the ability field a regular army and most importantly public opinion in the US was against an unjust war. Rajeev may well remember that domestic pressures played a much greater role than the NVA on the final withdrawal from Vietnam.
The reason why America finds itself bogged down in Afghanistan, is because bush 43 forgot about Afghanistan after the Iraq invasion.
As for Rajeev's continuous nagging about China, Why dont you actually propose a solution instead of whining away. Do you seriously believe that a military option is feasible. Do you propose hiking the defense budget, at a time when 37% of India is poor?
Its time for you to wake up and get out of your dreamworld where "India is a global superpower waitng in the wings"
Re: Kabul is no Saigon
by Hago Kiruttinan on Dec 19, 2009 01:53 PM
sir lets feed Kasab, Afzal and other terrorists in jails. Then we can hope the 37% will take a cue from this and indulge in terror activities!!
Ah!But I do adimre Rajiv's guts to come out and churn out another article(predictably criticising MMS and Congress for everything including extinction of dinasaurs) as if he never wrote any article before. Especially before MMS' visit. Hardly surprising though, coz Rajeev has made that an art form, ignoring past failures, predictions-gone-flat, theories-turned-jokes etc. and put his neck 'on line' again.
The author is crying like a baby for the Afghan candy has been snatched away. The dream of Kabul to Kanyakumari has been dashed. Karzai has switchedd side and ditched India. The 1.2 billion dollar toy has been stolen by the US and NATO. The author has all the reasons to cry but not enough reason to handle the situation.The author wants the failure of US in Afghan just as India lost. Indian loss of 1.2 billion is a huge sum whereas 30 billion a month for US is a pittance. Cry baby cry and hopefully you will come to senses one day.
Conclusion of the intricate West Point speech would inevitably change on further study. The real message which emerges are, US needs to be aware of the limitations in dealing with Afghanistan. Second, this is no Vietnam, it has got to be a fight to finish.
Once these two premises are accepted, the July 2011 tends to connote a review date to introduce alternate strategy, if the surge fails.
The present strategy is predicated upon Pakistan neutralising all bastions of terror in its geography. This shall depend political will within Pakistan if the desire to implement terror decimation is present, any inclination otherwise would probably be feasible only as an outcome of the joint stand of Pakistan and China.
The Pakistani establishment is still harping on Kashmir is the core issue and is looking at this as a basis for cooperation with US. Chinese are pressing harder on Kashmir to balkanise India and deny access to Afghanistan and Central Asia, thereby hoping to foreclose Indian options on for ever.
Indians can not provide any help to Afghanistan unless Pakistan or Iran concur. The real challenge is to defuse the threats and bring the economy back on rails. This can be done only if the political intent of Pakistani establishment changes.
Presently, the only feasible option for India is to increase the threat projection to China to levels they shall find difficult to cope. It will foreclose their capability to thawrt common interest of India and US in Afghanistan.
Re: Chinese conundrum
by Yaqoot Mir on Jun 05, 2010 10:28 PM | Hide message
Funny how you 'assume' that US and Indian interests are the same in Afghanistan, I think Indians are day dreaming at best. Your idea of ganing access to the energy in central asia will not materialize the US is there to HOG all corridors and then dispense energy to you as it pleases, trust me. If you were bright, you would have gone the independent route and stayed neutral at most or better yet, helped Pakistan cope with US pressure in turn India would have been let in on the following:
Iran Pakistan and China are actively countering USD presence in Afghanistan by 2 large projects:
Gawadar is meant to serve quick access for CHina to reach its current energy corridors, The Iran/Pakistan gas pipelines prevents Iranian isolation in energy supplies leaving the option for you to join in later and most of all by passing the US presence in Afghanistan and allowing for this same pipeline to run to the chinese border and on wards to Central asia.
If India had cooperated in Kashmir, Pakistan is more than willing to cede IHK to you, under one condition CHINA keeps the disputed part of IHK, Pakistan in turn would ask China for a favor: We would ask for 200 KM corridor to connect us directly to Turkmanistan via Chinese territory BYPASSING the US and AFGHANISTAN!
INDIA with its whining has messed up things big time your goverment wants you to believe Pakistan is spoiling the plans infact INDIA is a US prodtitute ad has done irreversable damage to Asias interests.
Re: Chinese conundrum
by Ramesh on Dec 10, 2009 06:35 AM
As things stand now, India finds it barely feasible to cope with resurgent China with an economy which is about five times bigger and is flexing its muscles on India-China borders.
If the ratio of white money to black money in India increases from about 0.5 to about 0.8 India may be able to become a serious contender. For white money percolates downwards much faster, leads to institutionalised savings and investments, therefore spurring much higher growth rates. While black money gets concentrated only in the hands of rich, connected and powerful. Next-Gen reforms in offing may make a big difference to India.
Re: Chinese conundrum
by Yaqoot Mir on Jun 05, 2010 10:29 PM | Hide message
Funny how you 'assume' that US and Indian interests are the same in Afghanistan, I think Indians are day dreaming at best. Your idea of ganing access to the energy in central asia will not materialize the US is there to HOG all corridors and then dispense energy to you as it pleases, trust me. If you were bright, you would have gone the independent route and stayed neutral at most or better yet, helped Pakistan cope with US pressure in turn India would have been let in on the following:
Iran Pakistan and China are actively countering USD presence in Afghanistan by 2 large projects:
Gawadar is meant to serve quick access for CHina to reach its current energy corridors, The Iran/Pakistan gas pipelines prevents Iranian isolation in energy supplies leaving the option for you to join in later and most of all by passing the US presence in Afghanistan and allowing for this same pipeline to run to the chinese border and on wards to Central asia.
If India had cooperated in Kashmir, Pakistan is more than willing to cede IHK to you, under one condition CHINA keeps the disputed part of IHK, Pakistan in turn would ask China for a favor: We would ask for 200 KM corridor to connect us directly to Turkmanistan via Chinese territory BYPASSING the US and AFGHANISTAN!
INDIA with its whining has messed up things big time your goverment wants you to believe Pakistan is spoiling the plans infact INDIA is a US prodtitute ad has done irreversable damage to Asias interests.
Re: Chinese conundrum
by Yaqoot Mir on Jun 05, 2010 10:29 PM | Hide message
Funny how you 'assume' that US and Indian interests are the same in Afghanistan, I think Indians are day dreaming at best. Your idea of ganing access to the energy in central asia will not materialize the US is there to HOG all corridors and then dispense energy to you as it pleases, trust me. If you were bright, you would have gone the independent route and stayed neutral at most or better yet, helped Pakistan cope with US pressure in turn India would have been let in on the following:
Iran Pakistan and China are actively countering USD presence in Afghanistan by 2 large projects:
Gawadar is meant to serve quick access for CHina to reach its current energy corridors, The Iran/Pakistan gas pipelines prevents Iranian isolation in energy supplies leaving the option for you to join in later and most of all by passing the US presence in Afghanistan and allowing for this same pipeline to run to the chinese border and on wards to Central asia.
If India had cooperated in Kashmir, Pakistan is more than willing to cede IHK to you, under one condition CHINA keeps the disputed part of IHK, Pakistan in turn would ask China for a favor: We would ask for 200 KM corridor to connect us directly to Turkmanistan via Chinese territory BYPASSING the US and AFGHANISTAN!
INDIA with its whining has messed up things big time your goverment wants you to believe Pakistan is spoiling the plans infact INDIA is a US prodtitute ad has done irreversable damage to Asias interests.
Re: it is the same story over and over
by Pat Thakur on Dec 09, 2009 07:05 PM
No, it's another story over n over. India pays again dearly for it's complete sissyness - i.e. for always putting it's tail in the hinds & living meekly, for always begging to US with a bowl & timidly running after it believing it is India's only saviour, for even after 60 plus years of Independence always staying in a Dilemma & unable to decide being Independent or a Slave.....
the us major fault is that its army and cia are running two seperate divisions in afganistan. the cia helping the the real rouges ie paki regulars in disguise of mujahideen. if the initial collection of them had been caught and intoregatted by the us they could have had a chance to finish off the taliban and al quida. but the cia under pressure from mush had them air lifted to pak. and now they are still playing both sides and collecting rent. us admin are nothing but a bunch of fools.
The crux of the problem is the traitor politicians starting from 1947...you know who...the clan continues to destroy and make India weaker, while the Swiss accounts and black money outstrips the legal institutions on ALL fronts---judicial, Income Tax, Police, Defense--internal and external. Simply disgusting.
