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US and
NATO out of South Asia
Lesson for Obama and
the US: |
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Chithra Karunakaran,
February 04, 2009 |
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Perhaps Obama will learn something new,
(though that is unlikely), from this latest event in which so-called
"militants" have allegedly severed the supply link for US-NATO forces by
blowing up a bridge in the Swat Valley adjoining the Khyber Pass terrain
(see Yahoo news copyrighted article, scroll below my post).
The US and NATO have NO role in South Asia. Zero, zilch, nada.
US-NATO forces have killed hundreds if not thousands of innocent Afghan and
Pakistani civilians and falsely claimed they have killed "insurgents" or
"militants."
Q. Your unmanned U.S. drone can spot an "insurgent" or "militant" from the
air because they are wearing T for Taliban or Q for Qaeda T-shirts?
One does not have to be a supporter of the Taliban or Al Qaeda or a
so-called "Jihadist" to fairly state that the
US forces and NATO forces are in fact the
major insurgents and militants in South Asia.
India, Pakistan and other nation-states have a choice. The regional politics
of South Asia can be played out, with much trial and error, but mostly with
open hearts and minds, by the primary stakeholders --
civil societies of
sovereign nation-states of the
geopolitical region of South Asia and through their one-state, one vote
membership in the General Assembly (not the US-dominated limited-membership
Security Council) of the United Nations. Or we can stupidly choose to have
self-interested non-regional nation-states dictating and controlling our
geopolitics. That's the choice facing South Asia.
Lesson for Pakistan: A vibrant Civil
Society in Pakistan is Pakistan's only hope and it will do much to stabilize
South Asia. Sixty years of growing state-sponsored terror on Pakistan soil
has now backfired on Pakistan. When Pakistan's new leaders claim "we are
victims of terror" they are right but not entirely factually accurate. That
claim should be restated thus: "We, Pakistan, are victims of terror because
the terror we grew on our soil for 60 years, with US help, and exported to
Kashmir and Afghanistan has now turned back to bite us." As for Pakistan's
leaders saying India should not engage in the "blame game", the question is:
Is India NAMING Pakistan as a state sponsor of terror (with US complicity
and financing)? Yes, it is. That is naming, not blaming. If the cap fits,
Pakistan, wear it.
Lesson for India: That proposed
Iran-Pakistan-India natural gas pipeline ain't never gonna work. It will be
continually sabotaged, just like that bridge that was blow up today in the
Swat Valley. The main reason the pipeline will not work is because the US
does not want the pipeline, and will not allow the proposed pipeline to
succeed. US policy in South Asia and West Asia is driven by anti-Russia,
anti-Iran, anti-Palestine, pro-Israel, pro-Zionist expansionist militaristic
and capitalistic market fundamentalism strategy to secure and privatize oil
and natural gas resources throughout the world. The US is competing with
both Iran and Russia for geopolitical influence and control over natural
resources, in the South Asia and West Asia (inaccurately called The Middle
East) regions.
So India, in terms of the proposed pipeline learn this lesson: Ditch it
before you Pay for it. In fact Ditch it before you Build it. Maybe India can
think about the pipeline again in five years, that is IF Afghanistan does
not fall to the Taliban and Pakistan does not have a military coup, before
then.
What India can do now (and it is a lot), is: Improve internal
domestic and border and coastal surveillance to protect the people of India,
their civil society and their cherished democratic and cultural
institutions, by involving civil society
, that means PEOPLE, civilians, citizens, residents, Bharat
vasis,(not just the army, police and myopic foreign policy bureaucrats) in
vigilance, surveillance and protection.
India, In terms of energy policy, Gain
energy independence through funding and public-private partnering for green
energy R&D in solar and wind sourcing. Exxon Mobil does not own the
sun (yet), so India, use it. Go solar, go green, not nuclear.
As for national security,
"If you see something say something" is a commonsense,
proactive, preventive, pre-emptive, more cost-effective natural security
strategy by every quantitative and qualitative measure, than rappeling
commandos onto the roofs of hotels and religious and cultural centers in
crowded urban areas, AFTER the state-sponsored terrorists have landed.
Chithra KarunaKaran
Ethical Democracy As Lived Practice
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