12 November SWJ Roundup

http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2013-11-10/news/43885805_1…

So, the old-fashioned cold warrior "Zbig-<em>ish</em>", "hang onto our favorite strategic asset" types kinda didn't understand the twenty-first century, policy-wise or military-wise, eh?

To be fair, the D.C. dove types always screw up understanding that part of the world too. Opposition to bad ideas is not the same as understanding the "whole of it", dear anti-interventionist peaceniks.

Remember to always look at the world through the habits and emotions you grew up on. Or not.

<blockquote>In 2009, the late Richard Holbrooke was appointed United States Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan. He swiftly became India’s bête noire, for trying to absorb the Kashmir dispute into his remit. The implication was that the road to peace in Kabul went through Kashmir: Pakistan’s hostility to India in Afghanistan, and therefore its support for the Taliban, was explained by Indian intransigence rather than Pakistan’s historic meddling.</blockquote>

http://www.caravanmagazine.in/perspectives/talking-taliban#sthash.mm6ce…

Imaginary person: So, you're saying that we should just turn on a dime and follow the Indians completely?

Madhu: When did I ever say that? Haven't I asked people to read American scholars that have written about the US in that part of the world, a scholarship that spans decades? Do you think Hussain Haqqani is the only person to write about these issues? But American foreign policy types can only hear certain truths when they come in a pleasing intellectual package. Strange phenomenon.

Imaginary person: And the U.S. military planners have historically had plans for "strategic" countries in that part of the world, but Galula sorta pushed that historical knowledge out the door, eh?

Madhu: AirSea Battle and China and"South Asian" strategic assets, is that what you are implying?

Imaginary person: Oh, stop, why do you do that? That region is rife with conspiracy theories to begin with. It's mostly ill-thought out muddle, you know that.

Madhu: I know. No, the point is that we have our own history, we can cultivate healthy relationships with more than one country, the sort of "bloc" building ticky-tacky "strategery" that D.C. is used to from decades of thinking this way is totally, what's the word?

Imaginary person: Idiotic?

Madhu: You said it, not me. At any rate, you know the US military and its intellectual cultures watching from afar. Dream worlds of the future must be nurtured over the realities of today.

Imaginary person: You're mean.