Rajeev Srinivasan on India's reduced options in Afghanistan, now that it seems like the Americans have finally lost the war
Two singular events took place recently that lead me to believe that the unthinkable has finally happened: the Americans have lost the Afghan war.
First was the assassination of Burhanuddin Rabbani, former president of Afghanistan, and chairman of the High Peace Council attempting to reach a negotiated settlement with the Taliban.
Second was the explicit accusation by Admiral Mike Mullen, the outgoing American Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, that Pakistan's Inter Services Inteligence was behind the recent, audacious attack on the US embassy in Kabul (the assault was rather too professional and well-planned for non-State actors to have done it).
Things are so bad that the New York Times, which is essentially the voice of the US establishment and therefore generally supportive of Pakistan, has seen fit to thunder in an editorial titled The Latest Ugly Truth About Pakistan that something must be done. They stopped short of specifying what that something might be.
Brian Cloughey, a Briton known for closeness to the Pakistani establishment, went one step further in Is this a price worth paying?, and told off the Americans.
Said he in The News International, "I know the Pakistan Army, and I state flatly that man-for-man it will hammer any opponent, no matter if the skies are horizon-filled with US bombers." I guess that means that the Pakistanis are slightly worried.
There is an irony somewhere in the fact that the ISI has comprehensively hoodwinked the Americans into (unwittingly?) funding the ISI's attacks on American interests, not to mention their troops. It is not beyond the realm of possibility that the ISI had a hand in planning the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Centre: they are good at tactical support for large-scale operations, such as the 11/26 siege of Mumbai and the assault in the heart of Kabul where operatives held security forces off for 20 hours.
It is remarkable how the ISI has mesmerised the Americans. The metaphor that comes to mind is that apocryphal tale of how a cobra can hypnotise its prey into paralysis before it strikes. It is a thing of wonder, this willing suspension of disbelief by the Americans in the face of Pakistan's diplomatic theatre.
Afghan endgame: As Americans retreat, India needs plan B - Rediff.com News
Two singular events took place recently that lead me to believe that the unthinkable has finally happened: the Americans have lost the Afghan war.
First was the assassination of Burhanuddin Rabbani, former president of Afghanistan, and chairman of the High Peace Council attempting to reach a negotiated settlement with the Taliban.
Second was the explicit accusation by Admiral Mike Mullen, the outgoing American Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, that Pakistan's Inter Services Inteligence was behind the recent, audacious attack on the US embassy in Kabul (the assault was rather too professional and well-planned for non-State actors to have done it).
Things are so bad that the New York Times, which is essentially the voice of the US establishment and therefore generally supportive of Pakistan, has seen fit to thunder in an editorial titled The Latest Ugly Truth About Pakistan that something must be done. They stopped short of specifying what that something might be.
Brian Cloughey, a Briton known for closeness to the Pakistani establishment, went one step further in Is this a price worth paying?, and told off the Americans.
Said he in The News International, "I know the Pakistan Army, and I state flatly that man-for-man it will hammer any opponent, no matter if the skies are horizon-filled with US bombers." I guess that means that the Pakistanis are slightly worried.
There is an irony somewhere in the fact that the ISI has comprehensively hoodwinked the Americans into (unwittingly?) funding the ISI's attacks on American interests, not to mention their troops. It is not beyond the realm of possibility that the ISI had a hand in planning the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Centre: they are good at tactical support for large-scale operations, such as the 11/26 siege of Mumbai and the assault in the heart of Kabul where operatives held security forces off for 20 hours.
It is remarkable how the ISI has mesmerised the Americans. The metaphor that comes to mind is that apocryphal tale of how a cobra can hypnotise its prey into paralysis before it strikes. It is a thing of wonder, this willing suspension of disbelief by the Americans in the face of Pakistan's diplomatic theatre.
Afghan endgame: As Americans retreat, India needs plan B - Rediff.com News