Thursday, November 6, 2008

Rubin: Messages on Obama from my Inbox

Since the election, I've gotten quite a few notes from people around the world in the form of emails, text messages, and Facebook messages. I thought I would share a few:

A Western reporter in Southern Afghanistan:
It [Tuesday] looked like an extraordinary night from here. I was on an embed last week. The failure here is complete. As you know, the challenge in Afghanistan and Pakistan is staggering. Several Afghans made impromptu declarations to me today that Obama's victory filled them with hope. We may have a window here, albeit a very small one.
A senior official of the Afghan government:
I read the speech of Mr. Obama, "Yes we can". It is great. It seems his charisma, speaking and oral skills have played a great part in his victory. Although the speech is largely for American audience, it is appealing to everybody in any corner of the world. I also read Senator McCain's speech. It shows how much maturity is in the US elections. I always thought should Obama lose the contest, US will remain a superpower but not necessarily from a moral point of view. Now however the US can be an example of morality in politics for many many countries.
A senior official in Tehran (two messages):
(1) Hope all is well with you and your family. I want to say congratulations. Hope CHANGE could bring better for all.
(2) I know you are busy in these days but my wife that is following your presidential election really impressed and insisted me to convey her warmest congratulation to you and your family. When she saw the emotion of your people after the result of the election in the TV she told me, she remember our people emotion when Dr. Khatami won the first period of his presidency.
A photographer in Paris:
yes you could and you did it bravo and thanks for all of us.
A Kenyan UN official from the same ethnic group, Luo, as Obama’s father, from Kigali:
Well done!!! America has made history! There is partying across the continent and tomorrow is a public holiday in Kenya! I will miss it as I am in Rwanda!
Another UN official, in Sudan, with the same surname as the Kenyan above, to whom I mistakenly wrote at first:
You may be surprised to know that I am a Sudanese Luo. But the Luo we speak is just the same as the Acholi of Uganda. You mention eating dinner in Nairobi with [O., the Kenyan UN official] in 1998. Oooh! that's when I was just 18 years old. Anyway am a different O. in Sudan. I pray, Obama has to win, and in Jesus name he will win!
An Afghan journalist at BBC Persian Service:
Many many congratulations. I’m so happy for Americans and the world. You have made the history. The world is behind you.
From a colleague in Saudi Arabia:
All brothers saying Tabrik. See you soon.
From a Pakistani friend wandering around Europe flogging his book:
It’s a bloody landslide! Thank God, he won. Barney, don’t accept anything without consulting me first please. I don’t trust your judgments on these things.
From an Italian colleague:
Subject: I love America!

Last January I pledged that, should Barak Obama be elected President of the United States of America, I would finally become a citizen of this great country. Tonight, after eight years of doubts and disappointments, I found again the country I fell in love with when I decided to make it my home twelve years ago. The country where I decided to raise my family. A country where everyone has an opportunity, really. Tonight, I am extremely proud of the United States, and of everything it stands for. I want to be part of it, today and forever. Tomorrow morning, I will mail out the application for naturalization that my students brought to me at the beginning of the semester.
From a young Afghan from Kabul, currently studying in India:
Congrats Barney. Sir, The world is all yours, coz this is now Obama who is leading the horse!!! Let's see how much his so-called "CHANGE" would affect the lives of innocent Afghans.

19 comments:

David Sketchley said...

Hi Robin (where's Batman?),

Actually, my comment is regarding Philip's excellent post, but for which, strangely, the comments section has not been facilitated.

Curiously, I was thinking exactly along Cunningham's lines yesterday when I read who Obama had appointed as his Jefe de Gabinete, and the rest of the Clinton mafia he was gong to appoint. My thought was: 'Change? What change is this when the actors are the same? This man is fooling at least one section of society. He's either fooling those who desperately want a real change, or he's fooling the those to whom he's been making conciliatory noises in the last weeks of the election race.'

I await to be corrected by his actions, but I'm afraid the man's a confidence trickster

Anonymous said...

Very happy for America and Barack Obama. I am an Indian citizen who shed tears when his victory was announced because I had seen the corruption, the cussed incompetence and egregious misrepresentations which were passed off as policy and public discourse in the last 8 years in America and a few years before that. Obama's victory was like a knot being untied and overdue relief from stress.

But again, as an Indian and Asian I feel apprehensive as well.
This article says:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/
US_ropes_in_Pak_security_experts_India_jittery/
rssarticleshow/3687667.cms

US ropes in Pak security experts, India jittery

"As new US Centcom commander General David Petraeus begins a strategy security review in Tampa, Florida, the presence of two security analysts from Pakistan as consultants have raised eyebrows here.

Ahmed Rashid, an acknowledged authority on the Taliban and Afghanistan, and Shuja Nawaz, author of a book on the Pakistan army, have been named "consultants" at the classified review starting in Florida this weekend. The aim is to review the war plans in Afghanistan and Iraq as the Barack Obama administration considers the wisdom of a troop surge in Afghanistan. "

The reason for my apprehension is not the opinion and policies Obama will pursue with India wrt Pakistan - India is a sovereign nation and can look after its own interests. My apprehension is for the tribal s in FATA, ordinary Afghans and Kashmiris participating in upcoming state elections.

The minute Obama affirms to Pakistan that the Pakistani Army's concerns must be taken care of before it can be expected to shut down jihadi groups, these jihadi groups will immediately ramp up their violence again their tribal dissenters in FATA, against ordinary Afghans going about their business and also attack Indian Kashmiris in order to sabotage the J&K state elections.

Many innocents in these three groups will be killed in order to demonstrate and improve Pakistani Army's 'grand bargaining' position.

That Pakistani state-backed groups in the past attacked and kill Indians in attempts to 'calibrate' India's official response to 'peace' talks, is long known and widely acknowledged. The thing to see is how many more Pakistani tribals, Afghans and Indians will be killed in the next Obama-affirmed round of 'calibration' by the Pakistani Army.

Anonymous said...

A sample of the sort of violence perpetrated by Pakistani Army-backed groups in Indian Kashmir:

Columbia University Press, 2004, Mariam Abou Zahab and Olivier Roy, 'Islamist Networks -The Afghan-Pakistan connection',

page 54
'..the ISI wanted movements active in Kashmir to attack the Hindus of Jammu and Buddhists of Ladakh and so frighten them into leaving Kashmir. The Hizb-ul-Mujahiddin was reluctant to do this, since it wished to restrict its operations to Kashmir, but other movements, such as the Harakat ul Mujahidin and the Laskhar-i-Taiba, were prepared to extend their activities beyond Kashmir and therefore became, after 1994, the groups favoured by the ISI. General Pervez Musharraf, then chief of staff, called on the Lashkar-i-Taiba to reinforce his offensive in Kashmir in the spring of 1999 in the Kargil sector..."

"...80 percent of the combatants of the Lashkar-i-Taiba are Pakistani. The social profile of the mujahidin is identical to that of non-commissioned officers in the army, since recuitment is carried out - principally in the towns of the Punjab such as Gujranwala, Lahore and Multan,-principally among families of the lower middle class who, contrary to what is generally supposed, are not of Indian or Kashmiri origin. The majority of the mujahidin emerge from the Urdu-language system of public education, while only 10 percent come from the madrassas. They are most frequently young town-dwellers who have left school without qualifications, and are either without work or are in low-paid employment which offers them few prospects for the future. Lashkar-e-Taiba has also made an effort to recruit in the universities and high schools..."


page 40
[b]"...The objective of the fidayin is not to martyr themselves in their first operation. On the contrary, they aim to do as much damage as possible to the enemy to inspire fear in both present and future generations. This is why Laskhar-i-Taiba operations against the Hindus are so savage. Women and babies are killed, and victims are beheaded and enviscerated. The ultimate intention is always martyrdom, and families know that mujahidin leave their homes with the intention of dying..."

Kashmiri Muslims are targets too:

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/11E92421-A8C1-4543-97D5-EAB6B818D8FB.htm

26 July 2004

A father and his two children have been beheaded by suspected Muslim rebels in Kashmir, police in the Indian-administered state have said.

The killings came on a night of violence in which suspected opposition groups also shot dead a woman and two of their own colleagues, while Indian troops gunned down three fighters.

A police spokesman said armed men barged into the house of Mohammed Shafi in southern Rajouri district and beheaded him. His son and daughter, Liyaqat and Zarina, were also beheaded minutes after their father's killing.



April 25 2004
Woman, daughter beheaded

Srinagar, April 25
Militants beheaded the wife and daughter of a Special Police Officer (SPO) in Baramula district of Jammu and Kashmir, official sources said here today.

The militants barged into the house of SPO Ghulam Hassan Qureshi late last night in Bazipora village and beheaded his 30-year-old wife Shaha and eight-year-old daughter Misra, they said. The SPO was not present at home as he was on duty at Bandipora. — PTI


http://www.dailyexcelsior.com/web1/04aug04/index.html

August 2004
Woman beheaded in Surankote
JAMMU, Aug 3: A young woman was beheaded by the militants in Lassana area of Surankote last night while a blast rocked Chatral in Mendhar in Poonch district today without causing any casualties or damage.
..
Official sources said three militants came to the house of Mohd Azam at village Lassana in Surankote tehsil last night and kidnapped his 25-year old daughter Shamshad Begum wife of Mohd Safeer. The militants took the woman to a nearby field, beheaded her and escaped.

Shamshad Begum had come to the house of his father only a couple of days back. Her husband was working in Mumbai.

A police party from Surankote headed by DySP (Operations) P R Shan rushed to the village this morning and sent the body for post-mortem. Body was later handed over to his family.

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2004/20040323/j&k.htm#1
March 23 2004
Militants blast house, 2 children killed
9 militants killed in Kashmir

Jammu, March 22
Two children were killed and four others injured, one of them seriously, when Lashker-e-Toiba militants blasted a house in Doda district of Jammu and Kashmir, official sources said here today.

A group of militants entered the house of a Gujjar, Fetah Mohammad, in the remote Tanka mountainous hamlet of Doda district last night and demanded food and shelter from the family, the sources said.

Apparently angry at the family’s refusal to entertain them, the militants blew up the mudhouse with a grenade, killing Mohammad’s four-year-old son on the spot and injuring his wife and four children.

Five-year-old Zahida, who was seriously injured, died on the way to the hospital.


http://www.hinduonnet.com/2003/05/20/stories/2003052005910100.htm

May 20 2003
4 women, 2 children beheaded in Rajouri

By Our Staff Reporter

Jammu May 19. In a gruesome act of reprisal against the family of a security services personnel, militants belonging to the Jaish-e-Mohammad beheaded six members, four women and two infants, in Chowikan Kotedara village of Rajouri district last night. The militants stormed the house of Mehboob Bhakerwal — whose one son is an armyman Wazir Mohammad and the other, Khan Mohammad, a serving personnel in the Special Operations Group of the State Police — and killed the family members present. The men had gone out for the marriage of a relative in another village when the militants struck. The militants stormed the house around 11 p.m. on Sunday and beheaded the six persons, including two infants, Arshad Mohammad (4) and Maroof Ahmad (2). The four women include Khatun Begum (60), Hanifa Begam (30), Jakra Begum (29) and Taj Begum (20).


http://www.rediff.com/news/2002/dec/20jk.htm

Terrorists kill three girls in Rajouri

December 20, 2002 15:40 IST

Unidentified?terrorists on Thursday night killed three young girls in Thanamandi area of Rajouri district in Jammu division for not wearing burqas (veils), official sources said on Friday.

A group of terrorists attacked Mohammed Sadiq's house in Hast village late on Thursday night and killed his 20-year-old daughter Nosen Kousar.

Then they went to Khalid Ahmed's house in the same village and took away his 22-year-old daughter Tahira Parveen and later beheaded her, the sources said.

Later, the terrorists went to Mohammed Rafiq's house?and killed his daughter Shehnaaz Akhtar, they added.

http://www.rediff.com/news/2002/dec/21jk1.htm

December 21, 2002
J&K: Woman beheaded for not wearing burqa

Close on the heels of the killing of three girls allegedly to enforce a diktat on wearing burqa, militants beheaded another woman in Rajouri district of Jammu and Kashmir on Friday night, police said on Saturday.

Militants barged into the house of Jan Begum, 43, in Darhal area and beheaded her, they said. Militants have also warned women against attending schools or colleges and directed them to wear burqa.

http://www.kashmirsentinel.com/apr2001/11.html
March 2001
Two Sikhs beheaded by militants in Surankote

POONCH: In another round of killings by Pakistan-sponsored militants targeting minority Sikhs, two Sikh youths were beheaded by ultras at village Bachianwali in Lasana area of Surankote tehsil this morning. Deceased have been identified as Mohan Singh son of Bhagat Singh, a resident of village Malla Khori Nar, Poonch, presently putting up at Gadigarh, Jammu and Lakhbir Singh son of Chanda Singh of Degwar, Poonch, presently a resident of Nanak Nagar. Giving details of the incident, official sources said the duo had come to Poonch from Jammu to meet their family members, who were still putting up in the villages while the youths were staying in Jammu in rented accommodation.

On March 9, the boys were on way to Poonch but the bus, they had boarded in Jammu, left them at Rajouri. From Rajouri, the youths took lift from a truck which dropped them at Dundak bridge.

Sources said by the time, the duo reached Dundak it had become extremely dark. The youths, however, didn't reach their houses and went missing. Later, reports indicated that both of them were kidnapped by militants of Pakistan-backed Lashkar-e-Toiba outfit and remained untraced since then. Sources said both the Sikh youths had been brutally tortured by militants and beheaded in captivity. Their bodies were left in the forest area while militants escaped.

28 August 2001 Hindustan Times
In another incident, militants killed five members of a family, including two women and two infants. The police said militants killed the family members of Basharat Shah, a storekeeper in the Food and Supplies Department, after he had refused to give rations to militants in Marhot village near Surankote. The militants went to his home and shot dead his father Ghulam Shah, mother Azra Bee, wife Zabina Akhtar and two children - Nazarat (3) and Nazakat (1). Basharat Shah was not at home when the militants attacked. In another incident, militants killed two more civilians - Mohd Rashid and Mushtaq Shah.

Anand said...

Rubin, it is amazing, surprising and heartening to see the amount of enthusiasm about Obama. Until recently, Asia was split between McCain and Obama (because McCain is free trade and Obama had made protectionist statements . . . Asians care more about free trade and economic policies than anything else) . . . however Obama has in a short period of time made a huge and amazing impression on young Asians. Obama is the most charismatic President we Americans have ever elected, in my opinion.

There is also the fact that our new President is named Hussein.

Anonymous, Obama will be tougher on Pakistan than Bush was. I also think Obama will increase military grants to the ANSF and economic grants to Afghanistan.

Anonymous said...

I liked P. Cunningham's piece above but there's no comment link so, may I? Yes, Obama is a great talker, I also noticed those prompters hovering like little ghosts at his victory speech, and wondered who wrote it. People go on about his charisma, but where's the "change", really? I browse his change.gov - foreign policy - and it reads to me like Bush II. Or maybe I'm expecting too much? Maybe in his second term?

Barnett R. Rubin said...

Certainly one of the most surprising recent developments has been the charge spreading around the internet that Ahmed Rashid and I are trying to help the ISI put pressure on India. A refreshing change of pace.

Anonymous said...

Mr. Rubin,
Let me put it this way. Some of the wording in your report certainly gives room for ISI to think so. They are experts at milking Western perceptions and making use of every opening offered by such perceptions.

When some years ago the US used the term 'nuclear flashpoint' for Kashmir, the ISI took it to mean that the US would intervene more urgently whenever a really bad attack occured to provoke India. So every time a US dignitary visited India, there would be a major terrorist attack in J&K.

When then Indian PM Vajpayee merely stated 'we will apply humanitarian principles to solve the Kashmir problem', it was taken by ISI as India being weary of defending its borders and being willing to ditch its constitution to reach agreement with Pakistan. The following years there were regular massacres of Indian Jammu Kashmiris.

When the latest Indian PM Manmohan Singh first came to power in 2004, he clearly stated 'I have no mandate to change borders'. After that Pakistani officialdom started saying how Manmohan Singh was a weak head of a fractious coalition and Musharraf began praising Sonia Gandhi, saying that if she acted like a statesman and took the initiative, Kashmir could be solved 'in ten minutes'. (That she holds no official position in the Indian government and it would be extraconstitutional for her to enter into any such agreement with Pakistan didn't register with Pakistani officialdom).

Musharraf even asked an Indian journalist what the consent of Indian Parliament had to do with any Kashmir settlement if the top Indian leaders signed off on such an agreement.

Even today, any important meeting of Indian-Pakistani officials is greeted with a major terrorist attack on Indian soil.

In the past any visit of Rumsfeld, Rice or Armitage(or any such ranking official) to Pakistan would be preceded by a major terrorist attack on Pakistani soil. These days any such US-Pak mutual official visit is preceded by killing of some Al Qaeda no. 3 of which there appear to be dozens for the asking.

This is ISI style 'calibration' of the other guy's negotiating position. The idea of a 'grand bargain' which is predicated on satisfying their desires gives ISI enormous scope for such 'calibration'

Anonymous said...

Here is one more Indian opinion on related matters

http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20081106&fname=raman&sid=1
For Your Eyes Only

B. Raman

(From November 5,2008, President-elect Barack Obama started receiving from the Director National Intelligence (DNI) a daily brief on the state of the world the previous day called the President's Daily Brief (PDB). The CIA would do well to incorporate the following in its PDB to Obama)

There is amazement -- and confusion -- in India over reports that one of the first acts of the President will be to appoint Bill Clinton as his Special Envoy on the Kashmir issue to facilitate a settlement between India and Pakistan.

Well-informed sources in India say that if the President-elect wants to severely damage the developing Indo-US relations he could not have thought of a better idea than to meddle in Kashmir. So many Americans--Presidents, Presidents-elect and defeated Presidential-aspirants-- thought they could help in finding a solution to the Kashmir issue and burnt their fingers and damaged Indo-US relations.

This started from Adlai Stevenson, who after losing the election to Gen Dwight Eisenhower, proceeded to Srinagar ostensibly for a houseboat holiday on the Dal Lake and tried to meddle in the affairs of the state by suggesting to Sheikh Abdullah, the then Chief Minister of Jammu & Kashmir, that he should seek independence and promised that the US would support him. When the Indian Intelligence Bureau informed Jawaharlal Nehru, the then Prime Minister, of Stevenson's secret discussions with Abdullah, he sacked Abdullah. Adlai Stevenson became persona non grata with the Indian political class and public.

When Clinton became the President in 1993 he could not resist the temptation to have a go at settling the Kashmir issue. He chose as his secret emissary not a distinguished American, but an old college mate of his called Robin Raphael, who was posted as a junior diplomat in the US Embassy in New Delhi. Her American colleagues in New Delhi used to allege that after Clinton took office, she used to go around projecting herself as if she was a trusted adviser to Clinton, who took her into the State Department.

Our Indian sources say that she had two "achievements" to her discredit. She instigated the formation of the Hurriyat , a hotch-potch of anti-New Delhi Kashmiri personalities, which added to the existing mess. She also encouraged the formation of the Taliban in 1994 with the help of her close personal friends Benazir Bhutto, the then Prime Minister, and Asif Ali Zardari, the present President of Pakistan. She even met Mullah Mohammad Omar, who subsequently designated himself as the Amir of the Taliban, secretly and sought his help for a project of the Unocal for a gas pipeline from Turkmenistan to Pakistan via the Herat area of Afghanistan.

According to the sources, her misadventures in Kashmir further damaged Indo-US relations and her godmothering the Taliban inexorably set in motion the train of events that led to Osama bin Laden shifting from Khartoum to Jalalabad in 1996 and launching from Afghanistan the terrorist strikes outside the US Embassies in Nairobi and Dar-es-Salaam in August 1998, the attack on USS Cole off Aden in October,2000, and the 9/11 terrorist strikes in the US homeland.

Our Indian sources say that in the history of Indo-American relations since India became independent in 1947, there have been more instances of meddling by Democrats than by Republicans. They feel that Democrats seem to think that they understand sub-continental affairs better than anybody in the US and find it difficult to resist the urge to meddle. According to them, that is why Indian security agencies feel uncomfortable when the White House has a Democrat as incumbent.They say that if one draws a graph of terrorism in J&K, one would find that it tends to go up when a Democrat is the President.

At a time when India and Pakistan are on the road to slowly mending their bilateral relations, Indians are amazed that the President-elect oblivious of the past misadventures of the US in the sub-continent should be thinking of one more.

The writer is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India, New Delhi, and, presently, Director, Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Barnett R. Rubin said...

Why should Obama be briefed on an overwrought reaction by a retired Indian civil servant to an unsubstantiated (and untrue)report? There is no source given for the ridiculous story that this article reacts to so hysterically.

Anonymous said...

Obama has so much to prove yet. Any Black Swan event would test him to great extent.

he isnt doing anything new on tve economic front as well. Obama's victory was more driven by Bush's failure than anything else.

I personally think he might continue same old policies with a bot of polish on it

Anonymous said...

Mr. Rubin
The source is apparently Mr. Obama himself quoted on a Time blog. I'll try to find the original posting, but meanwhile, here is a quote of the quote:

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Obama_mulls_Clinton_as_special_envoy_on_Kashmir/articleshow/3683170.cms
In a little noticed interview on the campaign trail last month posted on Time magazine's blog, Obama identified working with Pakistan and India to try to resolve the Kashmir issue in a "serious way" as one of the "critical tasks" for the next administration.

"Kashmir in particular is an interesting situation where that is obviously a potential tar pit diplomatically," he said, but indicating how aware [he] was of its complexity but saying he was in favour of devoting "serious diplomatic resources to get a special envoy in there."

Asked if it was not an ideal job for Clinton, Obama disclosed that he had already sounded out the former president on the idea when they had lunch at Harlem last month. He did reveal Clinton's mind on the matter.

Obama framed his approach to the Kashmir issue in the following manner: He would "essentially make the argument to the Indians, you guys are on the brink of being an economic superpower, why do you want to keep on messing with this? To make the argument to the Pakistanis, look at India and what they are doing, why do you want to keep being bogged down with this particularly at a time where the biggest threat now is coming from the Afghan border?"

"I think there is a moment where potentially we could get their attention. It won't be easy, but it's important," Obama said.

The presumptive US President's active interest in the issue has sent a frisson of excitement and apprehension both New Delhi and Islamabad, not to speak of in Srinagar.

Anonymous said...

The source for the story about Bill Clinton as possible envoy on Kashmir is Barack Obama's interview published here:

http://swampland.blogs.time.com/2008/
10/23/the_full_obama_interview/

(excerpt)

[Obama] Now I think that the most critical task that we have in Afghanistan is to not only strengthen the Afghan government, it's military capacity, it's ability to deliver services to its people, its capacity to work with the agricultural sector there to replace the poppy crop. But it’s to also work through a viable strategy for Pakistan. My sense is that Zedari has already been willing to step out and commit himself in a pretty difficult situation to work with the United States to root out militant terrorists.
So, building a different relationship with the Pakistani government, the Pakistani military, the ISI. Working with Pakistan, this government to deliver for its people so it gains legitimacy, in all regions of the country. Working with Pakistan and India to try to resolve, and Kashmir, crisis in a serious way. Those are all critical tasks for the next administration. Kashmir in particular is an interesting situation where that is obviously a potential tar pit diplomatically. But, for us to devote serious diplomatic resources to get a special envoy in there, to figure out a plausible approach, and essentially make the argument to the Indians, you guys are on the brink of being an economic superpower, why do you want to keep on messing with this? To make the argument to the Pakistanis, look at India and what they are doing, why do you want to keep n being bogged down with this particularly at a time where the biggest threat now is coming from the Afghan boarder? I think there is a moment where potentially we could get their attention. It won’t be easy, but it’s important.

[Q] Sounds like a job for Bill Clinton.

[BO] Might not be bad. I actually talked to Bill, I talked to President Clinton about this when we had lunch in Harlem.

Barnett R. Rubin said...

I stand corrected. And it seems like a good idea!

Anonymous said...

Well, B Raman's opinion is not an outlier.

http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=
20081117&fname=Cover+Story&sid=6

[Obama's] views on international issues crucial to India have been a source of both alarm and enthusiasm. For instance, while India agrees with him that the US should shift focus from Iraq to the Pakistan-Afghanistan border for fighting global terror, his remarks suggesting a more proactive role on Kashmir are alarming. In the last few years, Pakistan has tried to convince the US that it can crack down on terrorists without a blowback only if India makes concessions in Kashmir.

New Delhi, obviously, is opposed to such linkages.

As Shyam Saran[PM's Special Envoy] told Outlook, "Accepting the argument that the war on terror in Afghanistan can work only if certain concessions are made in Kashmir amounts to making elements in Pakistan believe that terror as a foreign policy tool can work. The war against terrorism cannot be segmented. The terrorist groups operating on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border and across the LOC in J&K are part and parcel of the same network. The US must understand this."

Occasionally, Washington has attempted to raise the Kashmir issue to accommodate Pakistan, only to be rejected. "It was raised even by the Bush administration," says a senior Indian diplomat. In other words, not every statement emanating from Washington should be construed as of insidious intent.

Nevertheless, BJP leader and former foreign minister Yashwant Sinha suggests that any such move from Washington must be resisted. "It must be made clear to the US that India will not accept any role on Kashmir from a third party."

Others feel that once Obama takes office, he will realise that Indians are sensitive on the Kashmir issue and won’t pursue it doggedly. "Obama is a realist and he will realise that no intrusive policy on Kashmir will work," says
Mansingh.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

I'd like to post a comment,

Obama has already made lending for middle and lower class citizens before he's in the white house! Amazing, read more below..

New Types of Low Interest Loans & Grants from Obama

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