India-US News and Discussion

[Vipul]

Deleted

[Satya_anveshi]

cross posted from pakhanomy meltdown thread:

http://forums.bharat-rakshak.com/viewto ... 46#p864146

Must read for desis residing in US and take appropriate actions to ensure personal safety.

Special Report: Rapid growth of militias feeds off politics

[ramana]

CRS, In the sixites and seventies in Bollywood, Anglo -Saxons were typical in every party scene and usual were criminals (smugglers).

Now they are item number dancers. Helen the original item girl, got her breaks because of her name and ancestry.

[Raja Bose]

CRS, In the sixites and seventies in Bollywood, Anglo -Saxons were typical in every party scene and usual were criminals (smugglers).

Bob Christo comes to mind. Well surely any Bollywood movie will need a steady supply of these "white" devils with loose morals to compare and contrast with the piousness, Gandhigiri and TFTA morals of the SDRE characterss, no?

What Mola Ram:Hollywood, White Folks:Bollywood.

[VinodTK]

India Ahoy

he Indian navy is growing in potency, reach and stated ambition. A 2007 doctrine declared an overriding goal of safeguarding energy imports vital for India's development. This implies at a minimum playing a greater role in the Indian Ocean. Indeed, in pursuing such self-interest, India says it offers a service for all trading nations by protecting the sea lanes from the Strait of Hormuz to the Strait of Malacca.

[CRamS]

Time to cork open the champaign guys, India has arrived on the world scene.

[vera_k]

Mexico Issues Travel Warning for Arizona Over Law

I hope the government wakes up and issues a warning of its own. There must be plenty of prospective students who would be better served by avoiding Arizona until this is resolved. Even if they go, they must know that they have to be prepared to keep documents on them at all times.

[Pranav]

Three Points of View: The United States, Pakistan and India

The Indians are concerned that with American underwriting, the Pakistanis not only may be about to re-emerge as a major check on Indian ambitions, but in a form eerily familiar to the sort of state-militant partnership that so effectively limited Indian power in the past. They are right. The Indians also are concerned that Pakistani promises to the Americans about what sort of behavior militants in Afghanistan will be allowed to engage in will not sufficiently limit the militants' activities - and in any event will do little to nothing to address the Kashmiri militant issue. Here, too, the Indians are probably right. The Americans want to leave - and if the price of departure is leaving behind an emboldened Pakistan supporting a militant structure that can target India, the Americans seem fine with making India pay that price.

Also from that article:

Islamabad's one means of acquiring breathing room has involved co-opting the Pashtun population living in the mountainous northwestern periphery of the country. Governments before Musharraf had used Islamism to forge a common identity for these people, which not only included them as part of the Pakistani state (and so reduced their likelihood of rebellion) but also employed many of them as tools of foreign and military policy. Indeed, managing relationships with these disparate and peripheral ethnic populations allowed Pakistan to stabilize its own peripheral territory and to become the dominant outside power in Afghanistan as the Taliban (trained and equipped by Pakistan) took power after the Soviet withdrawal.

Thus, the Americans were ordering the Pakistanis on Sept. 12, 2001, to throw out the one strategy that allowed Pakistan to function.

This puts into perspective this news from April 26:

India not to take up new projects in Afghanistan : http://www.deccanherald.com/content/660 ... jects.html

Thus,

the US leans on India to curb humanitarian help to poor Afghans,
so that the US can pander to Pak's aggression against the Afghan people,
so that Pak's wretched existence can be supported,
so that the US can continue to use the Paks to cripple India, as per its "balance of power" requirement.

So the good doctor MMS, man Friday of Madam Sonia and Rahul Baba, shall acquiesce with servility, so that the Masters should not be unduly inconvenienced in their efforts to keep India crippled.

[Satya_anveshi]

Folks, savor the the power of Arizona's immigration measure. Obama is forced to remove immigration off the agenda to clean people's memory in the short term. Make no mistake the strategy will remain same - let us have a "victory" and we can get this back up. Without immigration reform Obama is toast, no matter who the repub(e) candidate is (IMO).

Unfortunately, this will affect a lot of desis waiting in line for their coveted "moksha" aka greencard.

Obama takes immigration reform off agenda

[aditya.agd]

India should work with US on trade very closely but as far as military is concerned, other than joint exercises & interoperability, we should not buy any American equipment such as fighter planes for our armed forces. I heard some people discussing in other forums that we should buy american planes to improve strategic relationships.

American policies have always killed Indian soldiers. I love American people because I am one of them but their policies defy logic especially in case of India. I can't say about other countries or people.

They willfully ignored Pakistan Nuclear trade industry, look what India is facing now. They supply F16 fighters to Pakistan to fight Taliban terrorists. They and their NATO allies (sweden) supply AWACS to Pakistan to fight Taliban fighters ??? List goes on ....

Pakistan was bankrupt till last year and now they have AWACS to give them food, sounds totally absurd ....

[shukla]

No dilution of NPT in India nuclear deal: US

"We don't believe we weakened the NPT in our peaceful civilian nuclear deal with India," Ellen Tauscher, undersecretary of state for arms control, said in a teleconference with reporters on Friday ahead of the NPT review conference on Monday. "It's a deal that comes with safeguards, and it comes with a number of other transparency mechanisms that we think, frankly, add to the security and the non-proliferation concerns that we had prior to that," she said.

Tauscher also expressed disappointment that Pakistan, which too has declined sign the NPT, is blocking negotiations on the Fissile Material Cutoff Treaty. "I will tell you that I think everyone shares the disappointment that the United States shares, that there is a country (Pakistan) that is blocking the programme of work that was a very hard-fought agreement," she said.

Not that he leaves a lot to imagination..but I just wish he had named 'the country'..

[shukla]

Finaallllllyyyyyyyyyy......

America decides to walk the talk!!!!

India gets access to Headley, to send new team to US

All bottlenecks have been removed and a new team will be sent to the US to pursue the matter of India's access to David Headley, who has confessed to his involvement in the Mumbai terror attacks, Solicitor General Gopal Subramanium said on Saturday. "...All the bottlenecks are removed and we have a way forward. So it's up to us to operationalize the plan forward," Subramanium told reporters here. The law officer, who met his US counterparts said, "Once we are ready to constitute our team, and get off board from India, the access should be possible." He was asked as to how early India could access to Headley. He appreciated the "unstinted cooperation" from the US authorities and said he had a "very fruitful" round of discussions with American authorities.

[arun]

Excerpt dealing with Pakistan linked terrorism affecting India from the interview of US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Robert Blake by the Hindu’s Narayan Lakshman :

Narayan Lakshman: On your recent trip to the region, you mentioned that you had urged authorities in Pakistan to take action against Punjab-based groups, such as LeT, “not only because that is important to India but it is important to the U.S..” Apart from the earlier indirect actions by Pakistan in the Swat and South Waziristan offensives, in what ways are they following your advice? How about more immediate goals such as banning them and their associates from holding public meetings (as they have been doing) or seeing through the trial of the Mumbai attacks suspects to its completion?

Robert Blake: First of all with respect to the case, my impression is that is moving forward and that there is not any effort on the part of the Pakistani government to slow that down in any way. It is just that the judicial process is moving ahead.

On the question of LeT, I will just say what I have said before, which is that we really see that LeT is an organisation of growing scope and ambition, as the Headley case itself illustrates; and also a threat to the U.S. but also a threat to India and other countries, and potentially a threat to Pakistan too. So it is important for all countries to do what they can to circumscribe and control the activities of LeT. We will be continuing to urge our friends in Pakistan to deal with this. As I said earlier, they have made a lot of progress in Swat and then in South Waziristan, in arresting senior members of the Taliban. There is good momentum that has been taking place. At the same time it is important for all of us that these other groups – many of which have attacked Pakistan itself, like Jaish-e-Mohammed and groups like that – that they also be a target of Pakistani actions. We will continue to urge for progress on that.

It has wider benefit for not only counterterrorism priority, but also Indian and Pakistani relations. One of the things that I said to our Indian and Pakistani friends when I was there, particularly to the business community, is that there are tremendous under-exploited opportunities for trade between the two countries and that if progress can be continue to be made on terrorism and on the judicial actions that we talked about earlier, that would really open up a way for the business communities of both sides to expand trade relations and business investment relations.

From my conversations both in India and Pakistan, they are both ready to do that. But they are both waiting for political signals from their governments before they take actions. These small but important steps on things like LeT can have a wider and positive effect on bilateral relations.

Narayan Lakshman: Yes but in that same vein do you not think that some of these related organisations could have public meetings and also the slightly unrelated point on attacks in Afghanistan on Indian personnel. Do these thinks not dissuade this sort of process from kicking off?

Robert Blake: Well they do, yes, so again that underlines the importance of Pakistan fulfilling what it has always said it would do, which is to not allow its territory to be used as a platform against other countries.

Narayan Lakshman: Well I guess what many Indians would wonder is, what role could the U.S. play in pushing that forward on the ground. Certainly they have made the right statements but there is a sense that action is not following.

Robert Blake: Yes, Pakistan has a sovereign government and they are a friend of the U.S. and we will continue to work with them on this but all I can say is we have identified this as a priority.

The Hindu

[Anujan]

Car bomb found and defused in times square

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/02/nyreg ... re.html?hp

[Philip]

...and the US is sure working in cahoots with the Pakis! Here is this wonderful example of the US-Paki strategic relationship at work ...the transfer of another P-3 Orion ASW LRMP aircraft to fight...eh....

"Pakistan is in the middle of a war with violent extremists," Air Force Brig. Gen. Thomas Masiello. "It not only affects the nation, it affects the region. Their war is our war."

http://www.news4jax.com/news/23322397/detail.html

U.S. Transfers Aircraft To Pakistan Navy

POSTED: Friday, April 30, 2010
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- In a move designed to further solidify relations between Pakistan and the United States, a ceremony was held at Naval Air Station Jacksonville on Friday morning to transfer ownership of a rebuilt P-C3 Orion aircraft from the U.S. Navy to the Pakistan Navy.

[Hari Seldon]

...and the US is sure working in cahoots with the Pakis! Here is this wonderful example of the US-Paki strategic relationship at work ...the transfer of another P-3 Orion ASW LRMP aircraft to fight...eh....

"Pakistan is in the middle of a war with violent extremists," Air Force Brig. Gen. Thomas Masiello. "It not only affects the nation, it affects the region. Their war is our war."

http://www.news4jax.com/news/23322397/detail.html

O yes. Its long been known on brf that the next indo-pak war will be fought with 400% intelligence + spysat + material help (spares, ammo?) + commodities supply (oil, spares) etc etc help to tsp forthcoming from the khanees and the cheenis only.

[rsingh]

Car bomb found and defused in times square

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/02/nyreg ... re.html?hp

Uuups. US had to warn citizensto not to visit crowded areas of NY...........instead of Delhi. If any body in MEA care about Indian lives............there has to be a travel advisory about not to go to crowded area of NY.

[shiv]

...and the US is sure working in cahoots with the Pakis! Here is this wonderful example of the US-Paki strategic relationship at work ...the transfer of another P-3 Orion ASW LRMP aircraft to fight...eh....

"Pakistan is in the middle of a war with violent extremists," Air Force Brig. Gen. Thomas Masiello. "It not only affects the nation, it affects the region. Their war is our war."

http://www.news4jax.com/news/23322397/detail.html

And this
http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/daw ... -250-hh-04

“We must continue to reassure Pakistan that as it combats the terrorist threat, it is not exposing itself to increased risk along its eastern border,” said Under Secretary of Defence for Policy Michele Flournoy while explaining why the United States needed to strengthen Islamabad’s conventional defence systems as well.

“Although extremist attacks have led to the repositioning of substantial Pakistani forces, Pakistan’s strategic concerns about India remain pre-eminent.”

Under Secretary Flournoy and other senior US officials who spoke to the House Armed Services Committee urged lawmakers to provide funding for billions of dollars of planned US military and civilian aid to Pakistan during the next five years.

Separately, another senior Pentagon official told journalists in Washington that the sale of F-16 aircraft to Pakistan later this year would be “a sign of this burgeoning relationship between us and increased defence cooperation between our two countries.”
<snip>
The United States is also sending 50 aircraft technicians to Pakistan with four new F-16s it plans to hand over to Islamabad in June.

By September 2011, Pakistan will receive a total of 18 of these planes. A US military team will accompany these aircraft “to ensure that sophisticated, top-of-the-line avionics, weapons and data systems aboard the aircraft remain secure,” The Washington Post reported.

The planes, which for the first time will allow Pakistan to conduct night-time air operations, are far more advanced than the 30-year-old US aircraft that are the current mainstay of the Pakistan Air Force.

[Gerard]

The Americans are sending warplanes when they should be sending Psychiatrists. Pakistan's problems can be solved only by the products of pharmacology. The drugs used to treat paranoia will be far cheaper than F16s.

[Chinmayanand]

Gerard guru , psychiatrists are needed in India to treat those who see US as a friend. India can progress only when US will be busy in American continents. A couple of Pakistans and Afghanistans need to be created in South America and Canada to keep the americans busy at home. China , Russia and India should work together to get this done. Just like America created Islamic terror outfits to keep its adversaries in check , the trio needs to create Christian terror outfits to keep America in check . America must be pushed back into its backyard and it needs a salvo of its own medicine.

[sum]

For all the "imminent warnings" sounded against India, US gets one planted in its backside. Will India now issue a advisory?
striking similarity between the Times Square scare on Sunday and the 2007 Glasgow airport attack bid

The defusing of a car bomb at the Times Square was a major relief for the New York police. Had the bomb, which contained propane gas containers gone off, the result could have been disastrous, say experts.

The Times Square plot incident brings back memories of the 2007 Glasgow international airport attack where the deadly propanes were used by the Bangalore-based Kafeel Ahmed. The hard disks seized from Kafeel and the interrogation of his accomplice, Bilal, revealed that they had intentionally used propane gas in the bid to blow up the Glasgow airport.

Compared to the deadly RDX, propane gas, experts indicate, was easily available and did not catch the attention of the security as RDX would have.

These materials -- unlike the RDX -- are easy to source and are normally used by terrorists in high-security zones. There are various similarities between the Glasgow incident which involved Kafeel and the one that occurred at the Times Square on Sunday.

Kafeel had conducted a thorough recce on the use of this gas before actually attempting to use it. The bomb, however, did not go off, since security agencies were able to intercept the jeep that he was driving. Ahmed, however, died after battling severe burn injuries in hospital.

Experts say the effects of a bomb when propane cylinders are used can be as disastrous as ammonium nitrate or RDX.

The cylinders are usually packed with sharp objects such as nails which can be sprayed up to huge distances when the cylinder explodes. The cylinder usually bursts after the vehicle in which it is placed explodes. Such attacks come under the definition of a suicide or fidayeen strike.

Propane gas cylinders can also be made to explode with a timer device attached to it. The device usually causes a spark which causes cylinders to explode.

All these devices are packed together, experts point out. Kafeel, too, had deviced a similar bomb all by himself as he was completely influenced by Al Qaeda [ Images ] preachings. However, investigations never revealed any link of his to any outfit and investigators came to the conclusion that this was a solo operation.

When a bomb fitted with a propane cylinder explodes, it first causes a huge ball of smoke which normally spreads to a diameter of 500 to 600 yards. If these devices are packed with shrapnel then the impact is huge. The shrapnel and the material from the car spreads out due to the impact and can very easily cause of loss of life and huge damage to property.

While the shrapnel is inserted only to add to the damage, the biggest worry is the fire that the explosion would cause. To add to the damage would be the car fuel which would be flung at a very high velocity at the near by buildings thus resulting in a major fire.

Experts point out that the above mentioned impact is the result of just one cylinder which is normally 13 kg. In the case of Kafeel, he had fitted his jeep with two such cylinders. The impact tends to increase depending on the number of cylinders.

Terrorists normally prefer using propane cylinders in car bombs due to its easy availability. Propane is usually used for refrigeration and is very easily available under various brand names.

[Suppiah]

For all the "imminent warnings" sounded against India, US gets one planted in its backside. Will India now issue a advisory?

It is interesting that once one member of the anglo-saxon gang issues (mainly US) the rest including trustworthy 'deputies' like OZ and other poodles in UK, Canada follow suit. Look like they outsourced foreign policy to Unkil at least the anti-terrorism part. The whole scare was because of some kid in Kashmir who has been arrested now..

This particular attempt failed...all it takes is one to succeed to bring Obama's appease-the-barbarians policy crashing down to earth.

[sum]

It is interesting that once one member of the anglo-saxon gang issues (mainly US) the rest including trustworthy 'deputies' like OZ and other poodles in UK, Canada follow suit.

Would assume this is due to the ECHELON progam?

Anyways, agree with your post. For all the mollycodling Unkil is doing with the Jihadis ( at India's expense), it sure has a gift coming very soon ( with a sureshot Paki footprint).
Payback is always a female dog ( like sqn. Ldr Khwaja found out)

[Anujan]

A few impressions.

1. The attack on the surface looks like the failed aiport attack by a paki doctor. His SUV caught fire and failed to explode too. So, were they sharing the same telibunny manual on bum making?
2. On the other hand, there was a gun rack found inside. The gas cylinders were also to be set off by fireworks. Guns + fireworks indicate the right wing timothy mc veigh type

In any case the worthies are going to get caught. There are CCTV cameras in every square inch in times square. And the idiots changed the license plates of the car & filed the VIN number away. Do those morons know that engines have serial numbers? Transmission has serial numbers? Axles too? Also the VIN can be read out of the Car's self diagnostic computer?

Put there precisely to catch such amateurs.

[pgbhat]

Alright. Probably needs to come out of nukkad. x-post.
Who tried to car bomb Times Square in New York City last night?

On the one hand, it could have been a terrorist who just hates the Lion King: The Musical. But there’s another serious possibility that shouldn’t be overlooked: the bomber may be someone who wanted to give Comedy Central and their corporate parent Viacom payback for a recent episode of South Park that satirized the subject of the censorious tendency of some Muslims to say that any depiction of the Prophet Muhammad is an affront to the Islamic faith. The New York Post points out that Viacom’s headquarters is close to the site of the bomb:

" Also, the car was parked close to the headquarters of Viacom, which owns the Comedy Central cable network.Comedy Central aired a recent controversial episode of the animated “South Park,” depicting the prophet Mohammed in a bear costume, drawing the ire of some extremists.
via Car bomb scare shuts down streets in Times Square – NYPOST.com."

Oh my god, they tried to blow up Kenny! You ********!

[Carl_T]

A few impressions.

1. The attack on the surface looks like the failed aiport attack by a paki doctor. His SUV caught fire and failed to explode too. So, were they sharing the same telibunny manual on bum making?
2. On the other hand, there was a gun rack found inside. The gas cylinders were also to be set off by fireworks. Guns + fireworks indicate the right wing timothy mc veigh type

In any case the worthies are going to get caught. There are CCTV cameras in every square inch in times square. And the idiots changed the license plates of the car & filed the VIN number away. Do those morons know that engines have serial numbers? Transmission has serial numbers? Axles too? Also the VIN can be read out of the Car's self diagnostic computer?

Put there precisely to catch such amateurs.

Indeed, with the OK city bombing, I believe the clue was the serial numbers on the axles which survived the explosion!

[CRamS]

For all the "imminent warnings" sounded against India, US gets one planted in its backside. Will India now issue a advisory?
striking similarity between the Times Square scare on Sunday and the 2007 Glasgow airport attack bid

In India it would be "non state actors" onlee and US praises its "Pakistani freinds" as they take on terrorists, and urge dialouge to resolve all issues. If any Paki link to this failed attempt in NY city is found, I wonder what USA would demand from their "Pakistani friends"?

[sunnyP]

Pakistani Taliban Claims New York Car Bomb

The Pakistani Taliban has claimed responsibility for the attempted car bomb attack in New York's Times Square.

http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/World- ... k_Car_Bomb

[svinayak]

In India it would be "non state actors" onlee and US praises its "Pakistani freinds" as they take on terrorists, and urge dialouge to resolve all issues. If any Paki link to this failed attempt in NY city is found, I wonder what USA would demand from their "Pakistani friends"?

Pakistani Taliban Claims New York Car Bomb

The Pakistani Taliban has claimed responsibility for the attempted car bomb attack in New York's Times Square.

They wanted some news which would create awareness within the US population about the Pak terrorists. With this they can now put pressure on the Pak terrorist military and get more "cooperation"

There should be direct threat to the US population from the Paki terrorist. Until then the war on terror will be just pass.

[NRao]

For all the "imminent warnings" sounded against India, US gets one planted in its backside. Will India now issue a advisory?
striking similarity between the Times Square scare on Sunday and the 2007 Glasgow airport attack bid

In India it would be "non state actors" onlee and US praises its "Pakistani freinds" as they take on terrorists, and urge dialouge to resolve all issues. If any Paki link to this failed attempt in NY city is found, I wonder what USA would demand from their "Pakistani friends"?

I, actually, wonder what the Pakistanis would demand from their US friends. More potent F-16s, M-1 tanks?

[CRamS]

Actually the Uneven, Karapons, Brizinskys et. all will aver that US should be more "even-handed" and put more pressure on India to "resolve" Kashmir to prevent such attempts in NYC. Remember, any crime TSP commits becomes a "South Asian" issue which means somehow or the other, its India's fault.

[svinayak]

John Stockwell, former member of the CIA:

"It is the function of the CIA to keep the world unstable, and to propagandize and teach the American people to hate and fear, so we will let the Establishment spend any amount of money on arms."
"Enemies are necessary for the wheels of the U.S. military machine to turn."
"Short, successful military adventures are as effective as the Super Bowl in diverting peoples' attention from unpleasant truths."
In 1980, Stockwell said,
"if the Soviet Union were to disappear off the face of the map, the United States would quickly seek out new enemies to justify its own military-industrial complex."

[NRao]

John Stockwell, former member of the CIA:

"It is the function of the CIA to keep the world unstable, and to propagandize and teach the American people to hate and fear, so we will let the Establishment spend any amount of money on arms."
"Enemies are necessary for the wheels of the U.S. military machine to turn."
"Short, successful military adventures are as effective as the Super Bowl in diverting peoples' attention from unpleasant truths."
In 1980, Stockwell said,
"if the Soviet Union were to disappear off the face of the map, the United States would quickly seek out new enemies to justify its own military-industrial complex."

Something in common between Pakis and the CIA.

And, a nice summary of why India should not trust Pakistan on any matter.

I still see no good reason not to dismember ................

[sum]

Very interesting article:
New Triangle Of Power

A Fulbright scholar,external affairs minister S M Krishna has doubtless read Niccolo Machiavellis Art of War and Chanakyas Arthashastra.Together,the two treatises define the dark science of diplomacy.In todays fraught geostrategic environment,they also teach useful lessons in the conduct of foreign policy.
Indias two defining international relationships are with the US and China.The US sees India as a natural counterweight to China.But Americas realpolitik is Machiavellian.It wants India to play the role of a permanent junior partner much as Britain has done from the 1950s to the present while it pursues its own global objectives.
However,if it leverages its economic and demographic strengths with Chanakyas finesse,India can rapidly emerge as Americas most important global partner instead of a perennially anxious supplicant.US GDP is $14.70 trillion.Indias GDP (by purchasing power parity) is nearly $4 trillion.Assuming an average annual growth rate of 7.25 per cent between 2010 and 2040 (a reasonable trendline-based extrapolation),Indias GDP will increase eightfold to $32 trillion within 30 years.Assuming,further,an average annual growth rate of 2.40 per cent (an equally reasonable trendline extrapolation given a low American savings rate of 4 per cent and a high budget deficit of over $1 trillion),US GDP will double to $29 trillion during the same period.Thus in 30 years,Indias economy using a mathematical model that factors in several economic and demographic variables will be larger than Americas.
This is not fiction but cold,hard fact.US think tanks have come to the same broad conclusion.So has the Obama administration.Few in South Block though recognise its far-reaching implications on the rapidly changing balance of global power.Chinese strategists,in contrast,fully recognise these implications.Similar extrapolations,assuming average annual Chinese GDP growth at a slower average annual trendline rate of 6 per cent,place Chinas GDP at $48 trillion in 2040 50 per cent larger than both the US and India.China is clearly the elephant in the room and already behaves like one.
Chinas principal global objective is to regain its 16-century Middle Kingdom status as the worlds pre-eminent world power an era in which the US did not even exist.From this broad aim flow several others.One,military parity with the US.Two,economic superiority over the US.Three,reintegration with Taiwan.Four,settlement of Tibet.And five,proving to the world that its alternative non-Anglo-Saxon political model can bring sustained economic prosperity to one-and-a-half billion people.
As the third angle in the isosceles triangle of Great Powers in 2040,Indias foreign policy must be at once more sublime and more muscular.India,like China,represents the future,America the present,Europe the past.
Americas history provides many clues to its current behaviour.It was founded by working class families escaping religious persecution from newly-Protestant England 425 years ago.These English settlers (Britain as a nation had not yet been formed) liquidated indigenous Indians,appropriated their land and shipped slave labour from Africa to work the fields.
As the US won independence and grew more powerful,it invaded Mexico and by 1848 had annexed what are today California,Texas,Arizona,Colorado,Nevada,Utah,Wyoming and New Mexico.By the 1890s,it had colonised the Philippines and built a silent empire arching from the Pacific to the Atlantic.After World War II it invaded Korea,Vietnam and Grenada and propped up dictators and puppet-monarchs in Latin America and the Middle East (including the early Saddam Hussein and the sybaritic Shah of Iran).It made a pact with the Sheikhs of the post-Ottoman Middle East to deny Arab citizens voting rights in return for US military protection ostensibly against Israel but in reality against popular democratic movements in their own countries.
With such a colourful past,it is hardly surprising that the US continues to follow a ruthlessly self-interested foreign policy in South Asia to secure its geopolitical goals.But both the US and China have an Achilles heel.The US is a declining power.By 2040,it will not only be relegated to the status of the worlds third largest economy (after China and India) but it will also for the first time in its history become a blackmajority country.African-Americans,Latinos and Asians comprise 34 per cent of Americas population today.By 2040,that figure will rise to 51 per cent.The implications of this demographic shift will resonate across social,ethnic,economic and cultural boundaries.
As Indias own demographic dividend kicks in,New Delhis bargaining power with a declining US and a communist China sitting on a tinderbox of suppressed peoples freedoms will grow if South Block gets its strategy right.That strategy involves deepening Indias economic and diplomatic engagement with Africa and (Brazil-led ) Latin America,influencing the course of the Arab-Israeli dialogue over Palestine and using old military and economic ties with Russia to our advantage in tackling the post-US Af-Pak world with its scattered terrorist threats.
All of this requires a ministry of external affairs with intellectual depth and strategic vision and the ability to project both globally.Sadly,the current MEA falls short.In an emerging tripolar world,the stewardship of Indias foreign policy needs firmer hands and clearer minds.

[Anindya]

John Stockwell, former member of the CIA:

"It is the function of the CIA to keep the world unstable, and to propagandize and teach the American people to hate and fear, so we will let the Establishment spend any amount of money on arms."
"Enemies are necessary for the wheels of the U.S. military machine to turn."

Acharya - is there a reference or URL for this?

[svinayak]

John Stockwell, former member of the CIA:

"It is the function of the CIA to keep the world unstable, and to propagandize and teach the American people to hate and fear, so we will let the Establishment spend any amount of money on arms."
"Enemies are necessary for the wheels of the U.S. military machine to turn."

Acharya - is there a reference or URL for this?

This quote is often used in all forums and youtube. It is very old and is in wiki too
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Stockwell
http://www.informationclearinghouse.inf ... le4068.htm

He knows about India and he may know what happened during the emergency and against PM Indira Gandhi

[CRamS]

No doubt about this. I recall several years ago, when BJP was on the ascendency, Ollie North was on one of the channels, suggesting that with "Hindu fundamentalism" on the rise in India, US cannot afford to cut back its defense budget. This was after Soviets collapse, and even Russia under Yeltsen, and East Oriopeans were all trying to "me too" gate crash and become members of NATO, and US was feeling a bit dis-oriented with no "bad guys".

[Ameet]

Most of the articles mention Pakistani Taliban, hopefully this is the beginning of Pakistan==Taliban in the minds of the public in the west.

Administration Eyes Foreign Link in Times Square Bomb Plot

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/05 ... -car-bomb/

The investigation into the Times Square car bomb has started to reveal information that suggests the failed attack was the work of an international plot, a senior administration official told Fox News.

The official could not definitively say whether a foreign conspiracy was behind the incident, but that the body of evidence was moving in that direction.

[Carl_T]

The news reports say "white man" but from the video the guy looks distinctively middle eastern.

Police should also be careful if this small attack is not a diversion for a bigger one.

[Ameet]

Surprise surprise....a Paki connection.

Arrest Made in Times Square Bomb Plot

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/04/nyreg ... mb.html?hp

Federal agents and police detectives arrested a Connecticut man, a naturalized United States citizen from Pakistan, early Tuesday in connection with the failed Times Square car bombing, according to people briefed on the investigation.

The man, Faisal Shahzad, was believed to have recently bought the 1993 Nissan Pathfinder that was found loaded with gasoline, propane, fireworks and fertilizer in the heart of Times Square, one of the people briefed on the development said.

Mr. Shahzad was taken into custody at Kennedy Airport, apparently trying to flee, one of the people said. Charges against Mr. Shahzad, who had returned recently from a trip to Pakistan, were not announced.