A vicious attack on India’s crucial role in Afghanistan

The Times, UK ^ | July 9, 2008 | The Times, UK

[CarrotAndStick]

For almost a year the Bush Administration in Washington and the Karzai Government in Kabul have been putting out feelers to India to give its aid to Afghanistan a military dimension. There are signs that elements within the coalition of Manmohan Singh, the Indian Prime Minister, may be interested.

So, was Monday's bombing of the Indian Embassy in Kabul a warning to Delhi not to deepen its involvement in Afghanistan? The attack that claimed 41 lives, including the military attaché, and injured 141 was the biggest in Kabul since the fall of the Taleban in 2002.

India is involved in training Afghan military personnel. It has “exchange of intelligence” accords that have enabled Kabul to track down groups linked to the Taleban. India is the second-largest aid donor to Afghanistan, behind the US and ahead of Iran. It has allocated about $750 million to rebuild the war-shattered infrastructure. This includes strategic roads that have helped the Afghan Army and Nato allies to pursue Taleban fighters in previously inaccessible areas.

Of the regional powers, only India has offered full support to post-Taleban Afghanistan. China regards the regime of Hamid Karzai as too beholden to the US and too hostile to Pakistan, its traditional ally in South Asia, while Russia cannot come back because of memories of the Soviet invasion in the 1980s.

Most Afghans, who are Sunni Muslims and fear that Khomeinist mullahs might want to impose Shia Islam, regard Iran with suspicion. Pakistan is perceived as hostile because it created the Taleban and supported it for years.

That leaves India as the only regional power committed to a new democratic Afghanistan. It was no accident that India shouldered part of the cost of the parliamentary and presidential elections...

[swarthyguy]

America listened to Pakistan in 02 when they vetoed any Indian presence there.

The Pakistanis have moved their assasination shenanigans to a new level by targeting and killing Brig Mehta, formerly head of Military Intelligence in Kashmir.

This violates long held norm of intelligence and covert warfare in that principals of antagonistic countries are not targeted, something Pakistanis have long violated.

India will persevere, building bridges, including roads and educating more Afghanis in India.

Afghanis want more Indian entertainment, too.

All in all, India’s in a good spot in Afghanistan, despite this attack.