Rattling of Sabers
It is interesting in these times of economic introspection (i.e. that is all we care about) that so little discussion is occurring on the blogsphere about the saber rattling along the Indian-Pakistan border.
In all honestly, from my worldview, such events do NOT hold the same importance as they do to those that see the role of the US as some sort of global interventionist entity. I do realize the fact that we are under our past, present and future leadership a global interventionist entity - I just do not accept that as the right answer even if it is the current fact.
Saber rattling is often just that but in this case we have two nuclear armed nations with weak governments playing this game of brinkmanship.
In terms of what this all means to Obama's stated strategy of "getting an easy win" in Afghanistan it does not bode well. With Pakistan pulling 20,000 troops off an already porous Afghan border the prospects of an "easy win" become infinitely more problematic.
Can the governments of India and Pakistan exercise enough positive control over their forces facing each other across an increasingly militarized border? If they cannot prevent the predictable "cross-border incidents" can they then prevent an escalation? More importantly what will our interventionist thinkers come up with to mitigate and "control" such a situation?
This is worth watching.
Stumble It!
In all honestly, from my worldview, such events do NOT hold the same importance as they do to those that see the role of the US as some sort of global interventionist entity. I do realize the fact that we are under our past, present and future leadership a global interventionist entity - I just do not accept that as the right answer even if it is the current fact.
Saber rattling is often just that but in this case we have two nuclear armed nations with weak governments playing this game of brinkmanship.
In terms of what this all means to Obama's stated strategy of "getting an easy win" in Afghanistan it does not bode well. With Pakistan pulling 20,000 troops off an already porous Afghan border the prospects of an "easy win" become infinitely more problematic.
Can the governments of India and Pakistan exercise enough positive control over their forces facing each other across an increasingly militarized border? If they cannot prevent the predictable "cross-border incidents" can they then prevent an escalation? More importantly what will our interventionist thinkers come up with to mitigate and "control" such a situation?
This is worth watching.
Labels: Afghanistan, El Cid, International, Interventionism, military
Stumble It!
posted by El Cid at 4:11 PM
1 Comments:
In the British days, people of that land would say, "Even if two fish fight in the water, the English are behind it." I.e. the region has wars because external powers tend to stir them up.
Of course, the native citizens are not saints, and they would have disputes even without foreign entanglements, but once money starts flowing across borders, so do the arms dealers, the spies, and the crime lords.
We are living in "interesting times."
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