CRamS wrote:
I have not read the article as it requires registration, but responding to your observation on JS.
He is an intellectual IMO, an Indian nationalist, but not a hard core ideologue, he is a pragmatist. I've seen a sense of dejection and throwing in the towel attitude in his writings of late. JS's pragmatic side is that he realizes India's acute military limitations in dealing with TSP's punching above it weight and daring India to a nuke war, and his mission was to befriend US and get India and US on the same path wrt TSP. When NDA came to power, with BJP at the helm, Recall, VajpayeeJi's remark that India and US are "natural allies". Also recall the alacrity with which VajpayeeJi and JS offered India support to launch the war in AfPak immediately post 9/11. Not only did US shun this offer, but to India's horror, TSP was resurrected and was able to punch even more above its weight, while US's equal equal condescension started JS on his face. Not only that, its obvious US does not share this "natural allies" BS, and kept BJP at a distance. Anybody with an ounce of understanding of US strategic interests will tell you that with US subjugating the Muslims in mid-east, provoking the ire of Muslims towards it culminating in 9/11, its needs all the phony pliant Muslim "allies" it can get to conduct the affairs of its global empire. With such large a swathe of Muslim population in "South Asia", there is no way US would like to be seen as getting close to "Hindu nationalists" for obvious reasons, especially since the Hindu nationalists have no leverage nor anything so substantial to offer US that US will loose despite persisting in its India TSP equal equal policy (which means propping TSP to punch way above its weight wrt India). This reality has dawned on Jassu bhai and hence his throwing in the towel and declaring that "South Asia" is condemned to a 100-year war.
Think Chankian here, what JS is telling to the Paki is that we gonna continue to kick your butt for the next 100 years like we have done in the past 65 years unless and until you mend your ways.
Also this is Paki bashing thread, please give credit to for 9/11 where it is due, to the Paki. I don't know why you want to absolve the Paki? It is pretty much a established fact that Paki were the main architect of 9/11.
Lastly about the baloney of India and US being "natural" allies, the thing to understand here is that India has a Dharmic approach even when it comes to conduct of foreign policy, whereas American is based in Adharma. As long as that continues the twain shall not meet.
If you you keep that in mind it will help you better understand the dynamics of Indo-US interactions. Recall that in in the last so many years it is the US which wants "strategic" relation and India has not shown interest.