24.11.08

A truncated Pakistan?



I don't this would be in India's interest ..how would an Afghanistan-occupied-Kashmir work instead of a Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir?
A redrawn map of South Asia showing a truncated Pakistan, reduced to an elongated sliver of land, has sparked fear among military planners in Islamabad who think India and Afghanistan are “colluding” to destroy the only nuclear powered-Muslim nation with the US help, a media report said.The map, first circulated as a theoretical exercise in some American neoconservative circles, has fuelled a belief among Pakistanis that what the United States really wants is the breakup of their country, the New York Times reported. That notion, it says, may strike Americans as strange coming from an ally of 50 years but as the incoming Barack Obama administration tries to coax greater cooperation from Pakistan in the fight against militancy, it can hardly be ignored.Pakistan, says the Times, is upset over the Indo-American civilian nuclear deal as also big investments made by New Delhi in Afghanistan. US military commanders, including Gen David H Petraeus, have started to argue forcefully that the solution to the conflict in Afghanistan, where the American war effort looks increasingly uncertain, must involve a wide array of neighbours. Obama has said much the same. Several times in his campaign, he laid out the crux of his thinking.
But the Times says such an approach faces sizable obstacles, the biggest being the “conflict” over Kashmir. After the 9/11 attacks, the paper says that Pakistan reined in those militants for a time, but this year the militants have renewed their incursions. Talks between the sides made some progress in recent years but have “petered out.” Pakistanis are concerned about the reliability of the United States as a fair mediator, it adds. President Asif Ali Zardari has visited the US twice since assuming power three months ago. He has been generous in his praise of the Bush administration.
But that stance is criticised at home as fawning and wins him little popularity among a steadfastly anti-American public, the paper noted. Among ordinary Pakistanis, many still regard al Qaeda more positively than the United States, it says, citing polls.Talk shows here often include arguments that the suicide bombings in Pakistan are payback for the Pakistani Army fighting an American war. Some commentators suggest that the US is actually financing the Taliban, the paper says.
It added that the point was to tie down the Pakistani Army, leaving the way open for the Americans to grab Pakistan’s nuclear weapons.The map originally accompanied an article by Ralph Peters was published in the US-based Armed Forces Journal in June 2006.

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