Professional Matters Blog

The Professional Matters Blog at http://reportmysignalpm.blogspot.in/
Professional Matters of Report My Signal- Blog will henceforth be moderated by Lt Gen Harbhajan Singh, PVSM (Retd).
The following new articles have been recently posted on this Blog:

The Road to Smart Vehicles

Turbulence in India-US Ties

Sleeping tiger, crouching dragon

ISRAEL-UNITED STATES: DIFFERING PERCEPTIONS ON MILITARY STRIKES AGAINST IRAN ANALYZED

CHINA'S FORCE MULTIPLIERS

Military Officers create the Forest Deparment of India

Notable Forest Conservator of South India
General Douglas Hamilton (8 April 1818 – 20 January 1892) was a British Indian Army officer, gazetted to the 21st Regiment of the Madras Native Infantry from 1837 to 1871. He was a well known surveyor of the early British hill stations in South India and a famous sportsman, shikari, big-game hunter and trophy collector. He was an acute observer of nature and a gentleman.
Military career
In 1834 Douglas Hamilton went to the East India Company's Addiscombe Military Academy, and received his commission in the East India Company's Army in 1837, being gazetted to the 21st Regiment of the Madras Native Infantry. He embarked at Portsmouth in the "Duke of Argyle" on September 1 of the same year, arriving in the Madras Roads on December 14. His regiment was sent to Kulladghee in the Bombay Presidency to replace one which had gone to the front in the first Afghan Campaign. In 1846, he went with his regiment to Singapore, and was fortunate to obtain three months' leave in 1848 to visit the Island of Java for hunting. In 1849, he visited England on furlough and returned to India in 1852.
Douglas was very interested in forest conservation in South India, and often visited his old friend General James Michael who was organizing an experimental forest conservancy in the Annaimalai Hills. He was appointed to temporarily manage the conservancy when Michael returned to England on sick leave in 1854. He showed great aptitude for these new forestry duties. In 1857 Michael was again ill and had to relinquish the work altogether. Douglas succeeded permanently to the appointment and for the three years was in charge of the Annaimalai forests, supplying teak lumber for shipbuilding at the Bombay Dockyard. During this period he also became Assistant Conservator of Forests under Dr. Hugh Francis Cleghorn who established the Madras Forest Department and whose work led to the establishment of the Forest Department of India. In 1860 he went with his regiment to Hong Kong and returned to Madras in February, 1861.
Promotion Profile from the Quarterly Indian Army List 1891
1. Ensign 01 Jan 1934
2. Lt 12 Jun 1837- (arrived in Madras)
3. Capt 31 Jan 1838
4. Major 02 Mar 1847
5. Lt Col 29 Jun 1853
6. Col 01 Jan 1862
7. Maj Gen 01 Jan 1867
8. Lt Gen 01 Oct 1877
Gen 01 Dec 1888
clcik here to read more

Comment: One wonders what the salary and pay scales of sepoys and Officers were during the British era? Conservation and preservation of natural resources must be foremost in the mind of Military personnel.

John Hislop's reminiscences of the Jat Regiment- 1933 to 1947

Review for the Sandhurst Foundation
ln the summer of 1956, Field Marshal Sir Claude Auchinleck opened the R.M.A Sandhurst's Indian Army Memorial Room with its fine stained glass commemorative windows. Before a large gathering of forrner lndian Army officers, with one of whom I was staying as a guest, "the Auk" gave a message which few present will ever have forgotten, a message telling us to look back on the lndian Army with pride for its splendid achievements, but that its era was now over, history, and nostalgia would serve no purpose.

John Hislop's reminiscences, edited by his daughter Penny Kocher, follow "the Auk's" counsel excellently. After passing out from Sandhurst in 1933 Hislop served in lndia with the 9th Jat Regiment and in staff appointments until the end of British rule in 1947. His various chapters cover service in the golden years before 1939, operations on the North-West Frontier and in Burma in the Second World War, and the turmoil of the final two years before independence.

Readers will leam much interesting detail about operations in Waziristan and Baluchistan before the outbreak of war, tactics needed for protection on long marches - an officer in charge of a flanking picquet might find himself moving over thirty miles per day over mountainous ground for several consecutive days, and all the problems of food supply and water. ln 1942-43, as protection as much because of anxiety over a possible German invasion via a defeated Soviet Union as of local insurgents, the equivalent of five divisions were engaged in operations in the North-West Frontier provinces. Hislop was then moved to the even more dfficult conditions of Burma, fighting the Japanese in the unfamiliar conditions of sticky heat, only a few roads and these very poor, rain, lush jungle and leeches.

Perhaps most interesting of all, though, is the author's description of how the lndian Army actually worked; the Jat Regiment battalions, for example, were structured around two companies of Hindu Jats, one company of Punjabi Moslems and one company of Musulman Rajputs, a mix requiring not only good purely military leadership to ensure the respect of all but sensitivity for different cultures and beliefs. Hislop's long service revealed many examples of good leadership. Sadly there were also examples of bad command by others; lessons for officers in any army at any time.

A valuable addition to the history of the lndian Army, written with pride and no nostalgia.
Dr Anthony Clayton, Academic Staff RMA Sandhurst 1965-1993
More Reviews- Order your copy
A Soldier's Story- John Hislop, Indian Army officer of The Jat Regiment
More about the life of John Hislop click here

Foreigners in Ranjit Singh’s court

The Lion’s Firanghis: The Europeans at the Court of Lahore traces the
journey and lives of . An excerpt…

Most of the Europeans who were to have a major impact on the Maharaja’s regime were French and Italians, and they became the most influential and leading personalities at the Court of Lahore

THE Sikh Kingdom under the benevolent leadership of Maharaja Ranjit Singh (1780-1839) known as ‘Sarkar-e-Khalsa’ and the ‘Lion of the Punjab’ was considered a hegemony amongst all the Indian princely states that were under the jurisdiction of the East India Company in the early part of the 19th century. This was the golden era of the Punjab and its inhabitants, who stood firm against its powerful neighbour, British India, a secular and independent nation forming a buffer state against Russia, but wedged precariously between Afghanistan and China. Its inhabitants were not just Punjabis but there was also a minority of Europeans, who had forsaken their homelands to seek their fortunes and to enhance their careers in the political milieu of Punjab — probably the only province in the early 19th century that still offered any scope of military employment to a select group of foreigners newly arrived on its doorstep.

Court chronicles
Bobby Singh Bansal chose to explore a path less explored when he started working on the manuscript that became The Lion’s Firanghis: The Europeans at the Court of Lahore.
Read More:
The Tribune: Firangis in Ranjit Singh’s Durbar

Kashmir Dynamics, Pakistan Antics and Chinese Gymnastics at India's Borders

Indian Express by C. Raja Mohan Posted: Sat Sep 18 2010, 02:53 hrs
Having squandered some of the best years in the history of India’s external relations, the UPA government’s defence policy is now condemned to deal with some of the worst. Through much of its first term in government, the UPA had a relatively peaceful Jammu and Kashmir, a ceasefire on the borders with Pakistan, a measure of stability in Afghanistan, tranquil borders with China, and improving relations with all the major powers.

That was the moment to undertake some comprehensive defence sector reforms, do the groundwork for rapid military modernisation, alter the internal dynamics of Kashmir, and catch up with China’s rising power potential.

Sadly, the UPA government did not. It now confronts the prospect of the Taliban’s return to power in Afghanistan, a breakdown in the peace process with Pakistan, a stalled boundary negotiation with China, internal turbulence in Kashmir, China’s questioning of India’s sovereignty over J&K, and deepening Sino-Pak cooperation across the board, including in Jammu and Kashmir.

Meanwhile, the government’s hand-wringing in face of a crisis in Kashmir and the serious internal discord in the Congress party raise questions about the political will of the Indian state under the UPA government. It will be no surprise if India’s adversaries want to take advantage of widely perceived fecklessness in Delhi.
Drawn in at the borders: Click here...

People's Liberation Army
China's military which, unlike most military organisations, also shapes (its) foreign policy, has begun to exert an increasing influence over policy decisions. Yet, Indian officials say they have few avenues to engage with the PLA, and warn that a lack of understanding over the PLA's strategic intentions has become an increasing source of mistrust in the relationship.
The PLA is unlike any other military organisation. It is not apolitical – it has an influential political department that also comes up with policies, though is secretive about its functions. It also exists outside the purview of the government, serving the Communist Party and not the State. The PLA has been “an official foreign policy actor” throughout the history of the People's Republic of China, according to Linda Jakobson of the Stockholm.
India to engage China's military as influence expands
Can our Bureaucratic Foreign Policy makers match or stall PLA's aggressive March?

South Asia's Geography of Conflict

Center for a New American Security
Washington, D.C., September 8, 2010 – Ahead of the Southeast Asian Summit later this month in New York and President Obama’s trip to Asia in November, the Center for a New American Security (CNAS) released a report today by acclaimed author and CNAS Senior Fellow Robert D. Kaplan. In South Asia’s Geography of Conflict, Kaplan provides a detailed analysis of South Asia's history and geography including the broad arc of territory from Afghanistan southeastward into northern India and highlights India’s pivotal role in the region. Kaplan writes, “As the U.S. and China become great power rivals, the direction in which India tilts could determine the course of geopolitics in Eurasia in the 21st century."

South Asia’s Geography of Conflict is a must-read for American policy makers. Kaplan writes, "If Americans do not come to grasp with India’s age-old, highly unstable geopolitics, especially as it concerns Pakistan, Afghanistan and China, they will badly mishandle the relationship." Kaplan writes, "If Americans do not come to grasp with India’s age-old, highly unstable geopolitics, especially as it concerns Pakistan, Afghanistan and China, they will badly mishandle the relationship."

In South Asia’s Geography of Conflict, CNAS Senior Fellow and acclaimed author Robert D. Kaplan provides a detailed analysis of South Asia's history and geography including the broad arc of territory from Afghanistan southeastward into northern India and highlights India’s pivotal role in the region. Kaplan writes, “As the U.S. and China become great power rivals, the direction in which India tilts could determine the course of geopolitics in Eurasia in the 21st century." South Asia’s Geography of Conflict is a must-read for American policy makers. Kaplan writes, "If Americans do not come to grasp with India’s age-old, highly unstable geopolitics, especially as it concerns Pakistan, Afghanistan and China, they will badly mishandle the relationship."
South Asias Geography of Conflict by Robert D Kaplan
Watch a CNAS exclusive interview with Kaplan on South Asia’s Geography of Conflict here.

‘Operation Samosa’ unearths Indian link to terror plot in Canada

26/08/2010
Toronto: An al-Qaeda-linked terror plot was unearthed by Canadian security agencies on Wednesday, with one of the suspects reportedly hailing from India.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) force. Photo Courtesy: Reuters

Under what is curiously called "Operation Samosa", the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) arrested two suspects early Wednesday. One of them said to be named Misbahuddin Ahmed who reportedly comes from India. Search for more suspects is on.

It is the second al-Qaeda-linked terror plot to be unearthed in Canada after the Toronto-18 plot of 2006 in which 18 Toronto area Muslims were arrested for plotting to blow up Canadian targets, storm Parliament, take leaders hostage and behead the Prime Minister. Eleven of these plotters were convicted.

Terror suspects arrested on Wednesday were under watch of the national security task force of the RCMP for months. Authorities said the ringleader of the terror plot had travelled to the region between Pakistan and Afghanistan for training in weapons. Arrests were made when one of the suspects was about to travel abroad as part of the alleged plot, they said.

Though police didn't name the suspects, one of them is said to be 36-year-old Misbahuddin Ahmed who worked as an X-ray technologist at an Ottawa hospital. Reports quoted sources as saying that Mr. Ahmed comes from India.

Robert Farrell, a former Canadian diplomat who rented his place to Mr. Ahmed, told the Ottawa Citizen newspaper that the suspect told him that he was born in India but had lived for a time in Saudi Arabia.

"We met his wife at the time (of renting). She seemed quite nice. She wore an Iranian-style head covering (hijab). They seemed to be more of a traditional Muslim family," Mr. Farrell said.

Five kilometre away from Ahmed's residence, police arrested another suspect who has been named Ahmed Ehsan in the media. Reacting to the unearthing of the terror plot, a spokesman for Public Safety Minister Vic Toews said, "It is clear that Canada is not immune from international or home grown radicalisation. The government continues to participate in activities to better understand extremism throughout the world and the motivations of individuals who engage in terrorism."

According to security experts here, home grown terrorist cells are plotting to target Canadian power plants and transmission lines which carry electricity to the U.S.

"There are ways of attacking the U.S. through Canada. The whole energy for New York comes from Quebec (province), for example," security research expert Anthony Seaboyer was quoted as saying.

In fact, the famous Millennium Bomber Ahmed Ressam, an al-Qaeda-linked Algerian who lived illegally in Canada and had plotted to blow up Los Angeles in December 199, had entered the U.S. from Vancouver.

Though Canada has tightened anti-terror laws after 9/11, Americans still find the response of its northern neighbour inadequate.
Source: IANS
‘Operation Samosa’ unearths Indian link to terror plot in Canada

Consequences of Pakistan racing towards a failed state

Murder on the Khyber Pass express
President Joe Biden, India, China and Iran. They are all terrified of facing a failed state with nuclear weapons, and prefer a functioning but treacherous one.

The released papers - described as one of the biggest leaks in US military history - detail military operations between 2004 and 2009.

The "everybody" involved in this case seems to exclude whomever actually leaked the documents, presumably some element of the US military, which has to absorb the effect of Pakistan's double game in the region in the form of body bags for enlisted men and shattered reputations for commanders. Like the Rolling Stone magazine interviews that led to the firing of General Stanley McChrystal, the America commander in Afghanistan, the WikiLeaks documents suggest a degree of disaffection of the American military with civilian leaders deeper than anything in living memory.

To exit the Afghan quagmire in a less than humiliating fashion, the United States requires Pakistani help to persuade the Taliban not to take immediate advantage of the American departure and evoke Vietnam-era scenes of helicopters on the American Embassy roof. The politicians in Washington know they have lost and have conceded to the Taliban a role in a post-American Afghanistan. They can only hope that once the country plunges into chaos, the public will have moved onto other themes, much as it did after the Bill Clinton administration put Kosovo into the hands of a gang of dubious Albanians in 1998.

India does not want America to call Pakistan to account. In the worst case, Pakistan might choose to support the Taliban and other terrorist organizations - including Kashmiri irredentists - openly rather than covertly. Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, of whom the Economist on July 25 wrote "the strength of his coalition depends largely on how weak he is as Prime Minister", does not want to confront Pakistan. If Pakistan's support for anti-Indian terrorism became undeniable, India would have to act, and action is the last thing the Congress party-led coalition in New Delhi wants to consider.

China has no interest in destabilization in Pakistan; on the contrary, Beijing lives in fear that radical Islamists in Pakistan might infect its own restive Uyghurs. And Iran, which shares the fractious Balochis with Pakistan on their common border, lives in terror that a destabilized Pakistan would free the Balochis to make trouble.

Balochis comprise little over 2% of Iran's population, but they have demonstrated their talent at bomb-making on several recent occasions, including the bombing this month of a Shi'ite mosque in southeastern Iran in which 28 people were killed and hundreds wounded. Iran has accused Pakistan of sponsoring Balochi terror attacks, but intelligence community sources in Washington insist that the Pakistanis would never be so reckless as to put bombs into Balochi hands.

With 170 million people - more than Russia - and a nuclear arsenal, Pakistan is too big to fail, that is, too big to fail without traumatic consequences for its neighbors. Whether it can be kept from failure is questionable. Half its people live on less than a dollar day, and half are illiterate. It is riven by religious differences - a seventh of Pakistanis are Shi'ite - as well as ethnic ones.
Read more:
Murder on the Khyber Pass express: courtesy Asia Times Online
By Spengler

Pakistan Army and ISI amply rewarded for support to Islamic extremism and terrorism

Afghan prize would reward Pak for terror
SHAUN GREGORY, Jul 18, 2010, 07.20am IST
The US strategy in Afghanistan is in deep trouble. President Obama's December announcement that US forces would begin to draw down from July 2011 is being widely read in South Asia as the beginning of the endgame for the US and Nato in Afghanistan. Regional states are beginning to jostle for influence. They will be left for the second time in less than 25 years to deal with the consequences of a strategic retreat by a major power from Afghanistan. The nature of America's problems and Islamabad's support for the Afghan Taliban has moved Pakistan into poll position to recover its "strategic depth" in Afghanistan. If it does so, the Pakistan Army and ISI will undoubtedly conclude that their support for Islamic extremism and terrorism has been rewarded.

All four strands of the US-led transition strategy are going badly. Efforts to create a powerful Afghan National Security Force to provide security across the country are faltering; the counterinsurgency or COIN strategy has backfired in Marjah and the Kandahar operation has been delayed; the peace and reconciliation process is failing because some of the main Afghan opposition parties have declined to participate and Taliban representatives have insisted they will not negotiate; and the efforts to legitimize the Karzai government have been undermined by fraudulent elections and ongoing allegations of corruption and incompetence. America's hand is being weakened further by the civil-military tensions exposed in the "Rolling Stone" article, which led to the sacking of General Stanley McChrystal. The United States has seen nothing like it since the 1971 publication of "The Pentagon Papers" foreshadowed the ignominious withdrawal from Vietnam.

The dilemma for the United States and the rest of Nato is that with so much blood in the soil of Afghanistan and so much money spent to resource the war, the Alliance needs a success story to provide the political fig-leaf for disengagement and persuade their respective publics that the price has been worth paying. For the leaders of many Nato members, political futures are at stake. Yet the scale of challenge in Afghanistan is so great, and the need to find a resolution to the residual question of al-Qaida so pressing, that neither the US nor Nato can achieve an exit strategy on their own terms.

The most plausible success story, and one which would allow forces to come home with political cover and the al-Qaida issue addressed, is that the US and Nato have achieved a stable transition in Afghanistan to an inclusive Afghan government, that the Taliban have given up support for al-Qaida and come into the political process, and that the US will retain a residual regional presence — as it has in Iraq — to maintain downward pressure on al-Qaida in the theatre. The United States has come to believe that the key to this entire narrative is Pakistan.

Pakistan has resolutely supported the Afghan Taliban since it was forced to flee Afghanistan in late 2001 and it is from Pakistani sanctuaries and the main leadership shuras in Quetta, Gerdi Jangal, Miram Shah, and Peshawar that the Afghan Taliban has staged its comeback. Backed by the Pakistan Army/ISI the Afghan Taliban is now once again in the ascendancy in Afghanistan and is thus key to any US/Nato disengagement. This is why Pakistan's Generals Kayani and Pasha have made a series of recent visits to Kabul in which they have offered to broker deals with the various Afghan Taliban groups and the Karzai regime; it is why Pakistan has now cleared the way for Mullah Baradar to be extradited to Kabul to participate in the process, and it is why secret meetings have been held with Sirajuddin Haqqani, and others to seek to engineer an endgame. Pakistan has simultaneously been pushing its erstwhile proxy Gulbuddin Hekmatyar into the process and quietly boosting militant strength in the Afghan-Pakistan border region by facilitating the movement of Punjabi Taliban into the theatre. Pakistan is also circulating the idea that the Afghan Taliban will give up al-Qaida to reach a deal, even though there are few reasons to believe this is so and no means to enforce any such offer the Taliban might make to ease the US/Nato withdrawal.

Pakistan's price for being helpful to the US is acceptance of Pakistan's primacy in Afghanistan and that it has a strong role in shaping US regional engagement going forward. It is a measure of the desperation of the US that they seem prepared to agree this deal, cede the lead to Pakistan, and condemn the people of Afghanistan to Taliban rule or to civil war.

Simply put, the United States seems ready to reward Pakistan's duplicitous support for militant Islamic extremism with the huge geostrategic prize of Afghanistan. The implications of this for India are grave indeed and it is difficult to believe that a White House friendlier to Delhi would ever have countenanced such a deal. India is emerging as a great power and with great power come commensurate obligations. India must take a stronger hand in Afghanistan and find a response which provides the United States and Nato with another way forward, which offers the people of Afghanistan an alternative to the Taliban or civil war, and which denies Pakistan a strategic victory which will surely resonate across the region for generations to come.

The writer is founder-director of the Pakistan Security Research Unit at the University of Bradford, UK
Afghan prize would reward Pak for terror

Pakistan to train Afghan military officers

July 01, 2010 13:59 IST
In a significant policy shift, Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai [ Images ] has agreed to send a group of military officers to Pakistan for training, a decision which could raise eyebrows in India [ Images ].

An agreement has been worked out confirmed Rangin Dadfar Spanta, Karzai's national security adviser, who said under it a "limited" number of officers would be sent for the training. The new deal comes on the heels of recent high-level contacts between the two countries.

"The move is a victory for Pakistan, which seeks a major role in Afghanistan as officials in both the countries become increasingly convinced that the United States' war effort there is faltering," The Washington Post reported on Thursday.

"This is meant to demonstrate confidence to Pakistan, in the hope of encouraging them to begin a serious consultation and conversation with us on the issue of the Taliban [ Images ]," Spanta was quoted as saying.

Though the number of Afghan officers is said to be between a handful and a few dozen, but it has enormous symbolic importance as the first tangible outcome of talks between Karzai and Pakistan's military and intelligence chiefs that began in May, the daily said.

"It is likely to be controversial among some Afghans who see Pakistan as a Taliban puppet-master rather than as a cooperative neighbor, and in India, which is wary of Pakistan's intentions in Afghanistan," the Post said.

Some key US officials involved in Afghanistan said they knew nothing of the arrangement. "We are neither aware nor have we been asked to facilitate training of the Afghan officer corps with the Pakistani military," Lt Gen William B Caldwell IV, head of the NATO training command in Afghanistan, said.
Pakistan to train Afghan military officers

Comments by BRAD PITT on Jul 01, 2010 09:28 PM
I feel the biggest blunder that the US made was blindly trusting the Pakistanis. Its pretty clear that they have been taken for a royal ride and made to look like a impotent force that is in no man's land. The war is going nowhere because the Pakistanis are giving covert support to the terrorists and playing a dubious double role. Here in the West, there is silent anger at the audacity with which Pakistan has been playing a double role and made a mockery of the whole game plan. I believe that the whole double game will eventually backfire on Pakistan with passage of time and flare up internal strifes within Pakistan

Internal and External Security: Do we have a National Strategy?

Here are some media highlights that illuminate our National Strategy Spectrum

Should Army be used to tame Naxalism and Maoism?
Prime Minister and Cabinet Committee on Security, while taking the final call on the ‘larger mandate’ sought by the Home Minister, should deeply ponder and ask two critical questions before ordering militarization of Dandakaranya forests and Army marching over tribal territory. One is whether it would not signify collective and complete collapse of civil governance? And the second, will not the world opinion justifiably equate India with Pakistan, which is considered a ‘failed state’? Do we really need this dual shame?
Writer is a former Army and IAS officer
Read the detailed analysis:
Army against Maoists- Pros and Cons by M.G.Devasahayam

NDTV: Army to tackle Naxals?
Latest News: Will the Cabinet send in the Army to tackle Naxals?

Indian Army not meant to fight own citizens
The government faces its gravest internal security problem in recent times with the Maoists or Naxalites executing a series of brazen attacks against security personnel and civilians in the last two months. The incidents have given fresh impetus to the debate on whether the Indian Army should be deployed in countering the Maoist threat.
Lieutenant General D B Shekatkar, PVSM, AVSM, VSM a distinguished soldier and commander with a vast experience in combating insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir and the Northeast, feels the deployment of the army in combating the Maoists would be a wrong step.
Deploying Army against Naxals would be a wrong step

Army not for Policing own citizens
Want to pass on Government's incompetence to the army? Army should take a considered view only on the advisory role. Otherwise when things go wrong it will be very easy to fire a colonel or dismiss a major. Dealing with Naxals is not the army's job, it will be extremely bad for the country to get the army involved in this mess. This is a politically created problem. The solution needs to be political, backed by the police and judicial system. Prosecute the people involved and stop this thing from spreading. No one has even heard of any arrests or punishment for perpetration of crimes in the Naxal/ Maoist affected areas.

Obama has gone further than Bush on India
If India worries that it is being treated as a mere regional power, the US is willing to discuss global issues, even the Middle East, with India. As for the permanent membership of the UN Security Council, the US is willing to consider India's claim. No further commitment can be given since the US is not sure what course the inter-governmental negotiations will take in New York.
The Obama Platter: Obama has gone further than Bush on India

A new approach for India in Afghanistan
India’s stakes in Afghanistan are multi-faceted and India’s policies there will affect the way other countries perceive India”, says Raja Karthikeya, one of the lead authors of the report
A new approach for India in Afghanistan

Breadth Of US Talks Is Sign Of Progress
US policy toward militarised Pakistan is still one of solicitousness and is likely to remain so. And yet, both secretary of state Hillary Clinton and President Barack Obama sought to reassure external affairs minister S.M. Krishna, who led the dialogue for India, that the US did not see ties with India only in the Pakistan and Afghanistan context, and indeed it was made clear that the Indian and US perspective on Afghanistan had moved a lot closer and included helping build a democratic and sovereign Afghanistan “without outside interference”.
Breadth Of US Talks Is Sign Of Progress

The world yearns for a New Pakistan
Pakistan of the 1971 vintage is becoming an increasing threat to the homeland security of many nations of the world- in the West as well as the East, in the Ummah as well as in the non-Islamic world. One has to work for a reduced Pakistan to make this threat manageable and ultimately eliminate it.
Wanted: A New Pakistan By B. Raman

Lot of hype Obama style: Anderson not addressed still elusive
Joint Statement issued after the conclusion of U.S. - India Strategic Dialogue

For US, India is just a market

Daily Poineer Thursday, June 3, 2010 by Shobori Ganguli
Once feted as a “natural” and “strategic” partner of the United States, India must prepare to reconcile itself to the changed terms of relevance that the Americans have now laid out for this partnership. Even as External Affairs Minister SM Krishna and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton meet in Washington for the inaugural session of their Strategic Dialogue through this week, media reports and opinion-makers in the US point to an element of mistrust and pessimism that has crept into Indo-US relations of late. This, largely owing to the Obama Administration’s disposition towards China and Pakistan — the former, India’s biggest challenge to the number one position in Asia; the latter, an imploding neighbourhood with a committed anti-India policy.

Indeed, India’s relevance to the US must be re-measured according to President Barack Obama’s priorities which, as things stand today, are somewhat different from those of his predecessor, Mr George W Bush. The first, of course, is Mr Obama’s AfPak policy. Having committed a complete withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan by 2011, Mr Obama envisions a Pakistani role in that country to be played purely to American direction. In this scenario, India seems a stumbling block to Mr Obama as it seeks a legitimate and rightful role in Afghanistan’s reconstruction, as much for strategic depth in the region as to contain Pakistan’s influence in that country. This is clearly not to Mr Obama’s liking as he would ideally wish Pakistan, after all a proxy state, to wield greater influence in Afghanistan once the Americans have technically vacated that theatre. Therefore, any attempt by India to enhance its relevance in Afghanistan would not be a truly welcome step for the US.

Another source of discomfort to Mr Obama, of course, is India’s attempt to paint Pakistan into a corner on the issue of terrorism. While New Delhi has done its share of protesting against Islamabad’s sponsorship of terror in India, Washington has remained largely unimpressed. The official US position is that terrorism is a “shared challenge that the United States, India, Pakistan, other countries have”. Such is Mr Obama’s compulsion to keep Pakistan in good humour on this so-called war against terror that he actually put pressure on India to cede ground after the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack and invite Pakistan for resumed negotiations on all issues, including Kashmir, as Islamabad so pointedly boasted about. Clearly, India is expected to de-prioritise its concerns about Pakistan and maintain peace on its western border only so that the latter is not distracted from its job — that of securing American interests in the AfPak arena.
Read more: For US, India is just a market
Readers Comment
This is the way the US Presidents operate. For Obama and the Democratic Party, the most important thing is his re election.
Also USA is so concerned about the economic, financial and military potential of China. India has made itself not so relevant in the critical schemes of things for the US President. The Americans also know that India is a paper elephant!!!
Pakistan is playing to the US tune and is critical for any stability in Afghanistan. Even though the US Authorities know the double game always played and being played by Pakistan, they need Pakistan.
Good Indo-US relations can help in keeping Pakistan under control. During the cold war US did not trust Indian leadership. Hence agreeing to US requests like starting dialogue with Pakistan is not too big a price to pay. Of course the Indian leadership has to always weigh, how much to go along!!
So India should take care of its own interests. We need tough leadership.
Lt Gen Harbhajan Singh (Retd)

Indo-Pak relations continue to frustrate the US agenda in Afghanistan

The Telegraph Monday , May 24 , 2010: An American dilemma by Ashok Mitra
Indians generally love the colour of money; whatever the shade of that colour. Americans are making huge outlays in Afghanistan aimed at setting up a solid defence infrastructure against the Taliban. They are building airstrips, helipads and army barracks, widening highways and laying new ones and installing sophisticated communications networks, apart from constructing structures for hospitals and schools. Technologists and technicians of diverse backgrounds, civil and mechanical engineers as well as skilled and unskilled workers from India have crowded in Kabul and sometimes fanned out from there, under military protection, to the outlying provinces to participate in such works in progress. When the Taliban strike, they have no particular programme to spare Indians; it would not be logistically possible to do so either. There is, of course, also the theory that whoever supports the heathen Americans deserve to perish along with the Americans. Casualties are therefore mounting among Indians, a development New Delhi cannot afford to ignore. India’s prime minister communicated his government’s sense of disquiet over the matter to the Afghan president, who in turn will, it is expected, convey the substance of it to the American authorities.
Read the full article:
An American dilemma- Indo-Pak relations continue to frustrate the US agenda in Afghanistan

Afganistan: Dependency of failed state on drug trade

KABUL, 10 May 2010 (IRIN) - It is well known that the Taliban, local criminals and international drug cartels profit enormously from the drug trade; that corruption is rife; and that huge amounts of aid money are pouring into Afghanistan. Less clear is the effect of all this on government power and the rule of law on which humanitarian aid organizations depend to carry out their mandate.

The drugs trade and corruption generate more money than lawful economic activities in Afghanistan. Opium sales generated an estimated US$2.8 billion in 2009, while in the same year Afghans paid $2.5 billion in bribes to government officials, according to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

The drug-cum-corruption economy of $5.3 billion in 2009 is more than the $4.4 billion earmarked in 2010 for running the government and financing the development budget.

The overwhelming victims of corruption and drug-induced insecurity are ordinary Afghans, according to the Ministry of Counter-Narcotics (MCN).

“It is almost impossible to obtain a public service in Afghanistan without greasing a palm: bribing the authorities is part of everyday life,” said a UNODC survey, which described corruption as “the biggest problem” in the eyes of Afghans. “Bribery not only robs the poor and causes misallocation of resources, it destroys trust in government.”

Jean-Luc Lemahieu, UNODC’s country representative, was skeptical of the notion of linking drug money with corruption “yet nobody can argue that drug money and corruption are one unholy alliance sharing the same sick bed,” he told IRIN.

International mafia to blame?

MCN officials blame a powerful international mafia for the drugs trade.

“The mafia kills our counter-narcotics forces, abuses our institutions and even threatens the minister of counter-narcotics,” said Zalmai Afzali, MCN’s spokesman.

Hamidullah Farooqi, a former minister and economist, said drug money had deep roots and involved powerful circles both within and outside government.

“Whether Afghans or foreign mafia are nurturing the drug trade is less important than why the problem is not being effectively addressed,” Farooqi told IRIN, adding that there was a lack of commitment in government to tackle the booming illegal economy.

Afghanistan is the world’s top opium producer, according to UNODC, and its government is the most corrupt in the world after Somalia, according to Transparency International.

The opium trade employs about 1.6 million people (6.4 percent of the population), according to the World Bank.

Backed by donors, the government has tried several counter-narcotics and anti-corruption strategies and approaches over the past eight years.

Too powerful

Tackling drugs and corruption, however, is risky as law enforcement institutions are weak and those with vested interests in the illicit economy powerful.

“The so-called elite that thrives on the illegal economy is so powerful that it can destabilize the country if revolutionary steps are taken to change the status quo,” said Saifuddin Saihoon, a professor of political economy at Kabul University.

“Corruption and drugs undermine the rule of law, erode peoples’ confidence in the government, fuel insecurity, contribute to poverty and derail development efforts,” said former minister Farooqi.

“We all eat corruption and drug money, albeit in different quantities,” said an official in the Finance Ministry who preferred anonymity.
Read more
AFGHANISTAN: Running on drugs, corruption and aid

Question
Is US and Indian humanitarian aid going down the drain or increasing drug trade? Is the drug trade financing terror factories in Pakistan and Afghanistan?

Terror and beyond: Are we expecting peace amidst turmoil?

By Raj Narayan, 22/02/2010
Terror and beyond: Are we expecting peace amidst turmoil?
Violence, both externally driven and internal, has become a way of life in India. So much so, that each morning our eyes scan the newspaper for acts of terror. We let out an involuntary sigh of relief if the papers are bereft of pictures of shattered skulls, broken limbs and blood-stained roads.

Rescue workers carry the body of a policeman at a police camp attacked by Maoist rebels in Silda village, Midnapore district of West Bengal. On Monday, about 24 jawans were killed in the biggest-ever Maoist assault when the rebels caught the troops unaware. Photo Courtesy: Reuters

But such days are getting as rare as snow in the desert for Indians. The violent terror attacks in Mumbai on 26/11 2008 had barely receded into the recesses of our collective minds when the bakery blast at Pune returned to remind us of the external threats. And just as we were reeling from that blow to the solar plexus came the upper-cut straight to the jaw in the form of a daring Naxal attack on a police camp in Sildah, West Bengal.

And our country continues to bleed from a thousand cuts inflicted on us by envious neighbors and militant desperados.

In fact, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh surprised many by his recent statement that naxalism and not terrorism was the bigger threat to India's internal security. He sought to know the reasons for this sense of alienation amongst people in central India and suggested that the new age policeman must train to be more professional, motivated, empowered and above all trained to use technology for investigation.

Be that as it may, the question that springs to mind is the ease with which terror actors get access to weapons of war and funds in the region. While external help is easy to understand, where do the Maoists find the money and the guns to raise a stink?

The answer is not too difficult to fathom. Fly three hours in any direction from New Delhi and what do you get...? A conflict zone or one where a conflict has recently resolved. There is Afghanistan, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Bangladesh and Nepal - each a hotbed of conflict and each providing a haven for desperados with a veritable departmental store for arms purchase.
Terror and beyond: Are we expecting peace amidst turmoil?

Queen's Annual Christmas Message: Tribute to Armed Forces

Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II delivers her annual Christmas message to the peoples of the Commonwealth.

Dear Friends,
Jai Hind.
As I was about to send this email BBC started showing the Queens Christmas speech on TV. The first few minutes of the speech are videos about the UK Armed Forces, very touching.
I just checked the BBC News on web the Queen’s speech video is there at http://news.bbc.co.uk/ and http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8430546.stm
You will like watching it.
In service of Indian Military Veterans
Chander Kamboj.

War in Afganistan

Who's Running the Afghanistan War, Anyway? By Mark Thompson / Washington Tuesday, Oct. 06, 2009

WAR IN AFGHANISTAN
War in Afghanistan seems to be going the Vietnam War way. Too many arm chair experts in Washington DC are trying to interfere in the strategy and even tactics of fighting in Afghanistan.

Stop and go method, troop level debates, undue rules of engagement, political agenda, next Presidential elections, all are reminiscent of Vietnam War.

In the bargain, the US is conveying an impression of being indecisive, lacking courage to get to grips with the war and accept casualties and finish off the war in Afghanistan on a winning note.

The Pathan is a willy fighter but he is no super human. Hari Singh Nalwa, Maharaja Ranjit Singh's famous general, subdued Afghanistan. And for a century at least, afghan women would use his name to quieten the crying children!!!

The only way is to increase the troop levels, use all the sophisticated bombs, rockets and wweaponryand defeat the Taliban right and square, at the earliest. Half way measures will not do. And for that the US and NATO will have to be prepared to accept casualties. War is not a business deal where we haggle over prices and delivery etc.

And once on a winning note, the US should not repeat the mistake of the situation arising when the Soviets pulled out from Afghanistan, of leaving too soon. They have to stay put and ensure that Afghanistan is governed efficiently and has the required security apparatus. Some military assets like air power may have to stay put for long haul!!

In addition, Pakistan has to be kept under control to ensure that they do not upset the apple cart by surreptitiously helping the Taliban/ Al Qaeda.

Lt Gen Harbhajan Singh (Retd)

ISI offering covert support to Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan

September 27th, 2009 - 5:15 pm ICT by ANI-
Kabul, Sep.27 (ANI): A senior advisor at the Afghan Foreign Ministry has seconded General Stanley McChrystal’s stance that the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) is still offering covert support to the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Daoud Muradian said Taliban’s recent resurgence in Afghanistan is being funded by Pakistan’s intelligence services.

“What we face in Afghanistan is a triangle of terror - it comprises Taliban, al-Qaeda and the ISI of Pakistan,” Muradian said in an interview to Al Jazeera.

“Pakistan uses the Taliban as a leverage against us, against India and also as a leverage against the international community - to blackmail them. What we are facing in Afghanistan is state-sponsored terrorism,” he added.

It is worth mentioning here that General McChrystal, the top US commander in Afghanistan, had recently submitted a report to the Obama Administration, which stated that insurgency in Afghanistan was being fanned by Pakistan.

“Afghanistan’s insurgency is clearly supported from Pakistan,” McChrystal said in his report.

McChrystal also identified that the Taliban’s Shura Council (leadership council) in Quetta led by Taliban chief Mullah Omar, as the biggest force fighting the NATO-led troops in Afghanistan.

In his report General McChrystal has underlined how efficiently Mullah Omar is running his ’shadow government’ in Afghanistan. (ANI)
ISI offering covert support to Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan: Expert

Indian soldiers join Bastille Day parade

Members of the Maratha Light Infantry (Photo: France 24)
Indian soldiers, sailors and airmen will take part for the first time in Tuesday’s Bastille Day celebrations in Paris, where their Prime Minister is the guest of honour.

A 400-strong detachment, led by a section from the Maratha Light Infantry, one of the oldest regiments of the Indian army, will march down the Champs Elysées under the eyes of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh who is the guest of honour.

"When the Indian soldiers will take part in the military parade in Paris on 14 July, it will remind the French of the sacrifice of the numerous Indian soldiers who were killed or maimed in France during World War I," said Jerome Bonnafont, the French ambassador to New Delhi.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy will again host Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh (Photo: Reuters)
The Maratha Light Infantry, from the Deccan and Konkan regions in the south-west of India, dates back to 1768.

During World War I, the regiment fought in Persia, Palestine, Afghanistan and Mesopotamia. In the World War II, it took part in campaigns in Europe, south-east Asia and north Africa, including the battles of Tobruk and Monte Cassino.

The invitation, which follows French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s presence at India’s Republic Day celebrations in January 2008, marks another step in the ever-warming economic and military alliance between the two countries.

Military and armaments co-operation are a key element in those relations, according to Delhi correspondent Vikram Roy.

"Joint military exercises are very important, transfer of sophisticated armaments technology and now they are working on counter-mechanism to thwart international terrorism," he told RFI.
Indian soldiers join Bastille Day parade

Pakistan Taliban: When attacked, we must hit back

Vir Sanghvi , Hindustan Times
Consumed as we are with the hurly-burly of the General Election, we may have lost sight of an important development in our neighbourhood. As the Pakistan government tries to persuade the Taliban to retreat from its latest encampment a mere 100 kilometers away from Islamabad, the world — and Washington, in particular — has finally come around to the view that Pakistan is on the brink of becoming the next Afghanistan.

As the steady slide into Talibanisation continues, it is also clear that we are at a watershed moment in our policy towards Pakistan. We need to decide, once and for all, how we are going to treat our north-western neighbour.

There have been two broad strands in India's attitude to Pakistan. The first is the view of much of the media, many liberals, and a large chunk of the political establishment. This view has as its basis the proposition: “A strong and stable Pakistan is in India's best interests.” My own view is that the “strong and stable Pakistan is in India’s best interests” proposition has failed.

And how does India help bring this about? Well, according to proponents of this view, we must extend support to the democratic process in Pakistan and help civilian governments. We should encourage people-to-people contacts and abandon the Pakistan-is-an-enemy rhetoric. We must recognise that Indians and Pakistanis are really the same people, divided by unscrupulous politicians.

The contrary view is the position of the Army, the intelligence establishment and many security analysts. This view states that a strong and stable Pakistan is not necessarily in India’s best interests. A weakened Pakistan is often the best guarantor of peace. For instance, after the 1971 defeat, when Bangladesh broke away, Pakistan did India no harm for nearly two decades.

According to this view, we should never let our guard down, put no faith in the so-called brotherliness of the Pakistani masses, distrust every civilian politician and recognise that the Pakistan army’s raison d’etre is the alleged threat from India. Proponents of this view say that the only language the Pakistani establishment understands is strength and the best way to check the threat posed by Pakistan is by running clandestine operations inside that country and financing such local trouble-makers as the Baluchis and the MQM.

Of the two views, the first one has held sway for many years. The security establishment is treated with scorn by many educated Indians and its hawkish views are dismissed with contempt. During his brief stint as Prime Minister, Inder Gujral even asked the R&AW to roll up its clandestine networks within Pakistan, one reason why Indian intelligence now finds it so difficult to get accurate information out of that country.

But with the current situation in Pakistan threatening to spin out of control, this might be a good time to stop and think about our policy in the future.

My own view is that the “strong and stable Pakistan is in India’s best interests” proposition has failed.

Over the last several years, we have done everything we can to help Pakistan. We have hosted General Musharraf, we have offered talks on Kashmir, we have supported civilian politicians and welcomed Asif Zardari with open arms. We have tried our hardest to understand the mindset of civil society, with a steady stream of Pakistani intellectuals arriving in India, and, each evening, our channels offer endless TV time to Pakistanis to tell us what their country’s position is.

Here’s what this policy has got us: General Musharraf is still blatantly hostile to India as his last rant at the India Today Conclave demonstrated. Asif Zardari has refused to help in the investigation of the Bombay attacks. Terrorists continue to be sent across the border to foment trouble in India. Far from following a liberal policy, the new civilian government has done deals with the Taliban and imposed the medieval Sharia law in parts of Pakistan.

All opinion polls suggest that the average Pakistani hates India, loves Osama bin Laden and believes that 9/11 was a Jewish plot to malign global Islam. Worse still, the evidence suggests that if you push the Pakistani masses about their true identity they would pick Muslim over Pakistani. Do you have to be a genius to see that the good neighbour policy has been an utter and complete disaster?

What Indians find shocking is the extent to which so many educated Pakistanis seem unable to divorce their Islamic identity from political discourse.Is it not time to concede that General Musharraf’s attitude is symptomatic of the view of the Pakistan army: India is the enemy and must always be fought? Shouldn’t we accept that Pakistan’s civilian politicians are such untrustworthy sleazeballs that they make Mayawati shine like a goddess in comparison? Even if a crook like Zardari is sincere (which I doubt; his ultimate loyalty is to Credit Suisse) he simply does not have the clout to deliver on the kind of peace and love nonsense that he gushed about at the HT Summit.

More worrying is that Pakistan’s civil society seems to have only the most minimal commitment to the liberal values that we in India enshrine in our Constitution. Even someone like Imran Khan, who improved his mind at Oxford and developed his loins on Sloane Street, turns into a reactionary when he addresses his own people, going so far as to praise Sharia law.

What Indians find shocking is the extent to which so many educated Pakistanis seem unable to divorce their Islamic identity from political discourse.You and I can get up and say that Hindu fanatics are thugs and goons or even that Narendra Modi is a mass murderer. How many Pakistanis get up and say that about their own fanatics? We speak up for MF Husain’s right to paint Hindu goddesses in the nude. How many Pakistanis speak up for the Danish cartoonist?

As for people-to-people contacts, I am still in favour of letting Pakistanis come to India to see what a liberal society looks like. But I have given up all hope that it will make a difference to the general Pakistani mind-set. After all, if you’re dealing with a country whose people have bought Al-Qaeda propaganda about how all terrorism is really an American and Israeli plot, a people who are content to live off the Yankee dollar while simultaneously hating the US, and a people who venerate the suicide bombers that bin Laden dispatches around the world, then do you really believe that they will suddenly see the light when they land in Bombay and discover that our three biggest stars are all Muslim?

It’s gone too far for people-to-people contacts to make much difference.

So, what do we do? I think we should accept that the intelligence establishment may have had a point. We should resume clandestine operations, we should do to the Pakistanis what they are doing to us, and hit back every time we are attacked.

We should tell the US that we are tired of this policy of equivalence. When America attacked Afghanistan, we did not treat the US and Afghanistan as moral equals. Similarly, America should stop treating India and Pakistan on the same plane. One of us is the world’s largest democracy. And the other is a terrorist state.

But if we are to ensure that the world sees through Pakistan’s pretensions and recognises it for what it is, then we must first rid ourselves of our own illusions. Let’s stop kidding ourselves about the true nature of the enemy. Let’s recognise the magnitude of the threat — growing by the day as Taliban influence spreads — and work out a strategy to fight it.

The time for lighting candles at the Wagah border has long since passed.
When attacked, we must hit back: Vir Sanghvi, Hindustan Times