Clinton: India chagrined at Obama's Kashmir envoy proposal & U-turn in Afghan policy

Posted on 07 November 2008. Tags: Bill Clinton

There is also the sense that Mr Obama’s ideas on India have been evolving from his initial opposition of the nuclear deal to his eventual endorsement of the deal and new ties with India. On the other hand, the Indian establishment, very early on, had made no secret of its preference for a McCain administration. Obama’s change could also involve US policy on J&K, 4 Nov, 2008, 0347 hrs IST, ET Bureau economictimes indiatimes

War Crimes: Illegal attacks on Pakistan- counter-productive

Barack Obama has been rethinking the US policy in West Asia. US interests Risked in Pakistan: Strikes– over playing hand. Its just that the review got ensnarled in the General Elecitons and the voices got muted in the candidates rhetoric. US media sees folly of attacking Pakistan–Finally!! American policy has been evolving for some time. Guardian quesitons why US talks to Taliban but Pakistan has to bomb them! The failure in Afghanistan, the ineptness of the Kabul adminsitration and the fact that there is a clear realization that the US has overplayed its hand in Pakistan. Petraeus gets earful from Zardari, Kiyani, & Minister Mukhtar: US attacks on Pakistan.

As a series of recent statements from Obama on Kashmir get front-page treatment, India is waking up to the prospect of a major spat with the next administration in Washington over Kashmir. If India’s national neuralgia over Kashmir is reignited under an Obama administration..

The potential conflict between India and the new administration stems from some of the big ideas Obama has articulated about America’s national security priorities. Obama has said he wants to shift America’s military energies from a needless war of choice in Iraq to the faltering war of necessity in Afghanistan.

But many are beginning to get anxious about the third step in Obama’s logic: To get Pakistan to cooperate with the U.S. in Afghanistan, Washington must actively seek to resolve Islamabad’s problem with New Delhi over Kashmir. C. Raja Mohan is a professor of South Asian studies at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Nanyang Technological University, in Singapore, and a contributing editor of The Indian Express, New Delhi. Published by Forbes on November 9th, 2008

What is more, the US administration knows that India had a direct hand in the Marriott bombing. the sophistication of the attack and the volume of the explosives clearly point towards Indian intelligence services. The Islamabad bombing was the last straw that broke the camel’s back. Goyem: India support for Frankensteins will create blowback. The American’s realized that India had to be reigned in. Obama wants to build long lasting friendship with Pakistanis! President Elect Barack Obama’s recent comments on Kashmir are part of a well thought out policy created after much deliberation and contact with various think tanks.

Singapore, November 3: As Obamamania grips much of the world, including India, the man who might become the next President of the United States has ideas on Jammu and Kashmir that should cause some concern to New Delhi.

For months now, New Delhi has been assessing Obama’s seeming hard-line towards Pakistan, including a threat to bomb terrorist bases there if Islamabad failed to act against the al-Qaida and the Taliban. India, however, has paid less attention to the carrot Obama was offering Pakistan—American activism on Kashmir in return for credible cooperation in Afghanistan.

Obama’s remarks on Kashmir are by no means off the cuff. They have been remarkably consistent since he launched his presidential campaign. In the first comprehensive articulation of his world view in the journal Foreign Affairs during the summer of 2007, Obama argued, “If Pakistan can look towards the east (India) with confidence, it will be less likely to believe its interests are best advanced through cooperation with the Taliban.” (C. Raja Mohan is a Professor at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University and a Contributing Editor of The Indian Express.)

This summer the Kashmiris held the biggest demonstrations against Indian occupation.

The Hurrayat Conference and a majority of the Kashmiris have boycotted the elections. Yasin Malik’s arrest cannot dampen Kashmiri freedom struggle. Bruce Riedel is one of the few of Council of Foreign Relations who at least partially recognizes the faults with the policies of the current adminsitration. Pakistanis to USA: We want “Friends Not Masters”. Facing total catastrophy in the Afghan policy, Mr. Reidel has as now set out to undo the historical wrong done to Pakistan. No more ground Attacks in Pakistan: Why did Bush back off & change US policy?

Obama, has got to reverse the distrust and the lack of faith in America that has accumulated, not just during President Bush’s administration-though he hasn’t helped-but over decades now. That can be done, I think, if we work with the civilian government, show them we want democracy in Pakistan, if we increase our assistance to Pakistan, especially in economic areas as Sen. Joseph Biden and Sen. Richard Lugar have proposed. We should also be sensitive to some of Pakistan’s diplomatic needs…..

…The next president has to find a way to reverse Pakistani attitudes about America, to get the Pakistanis to change from being half-hearted supporters-or not being supporters at all-of our struggle against the Taliban. We have got to get them on our side. There is no unilateral American solution to the problem of these sanctuaries in Pakistan. We cannot hope to invade and occupy all of Pakistan to cleanse it of the Taliban and al-Qaeda since Pakistan is a nuclear weapons state. We just simply cannot occupy the entire country. We need to get the Pakistanis to work with us.

….We ought to try to encourage a long-term settlement between India and Pakistan of the Kashmir dispute Bruce Reidel, Advisor to Barack Obama. CFR.

Indian foreign policy Titanic hits several icebergs. The statements by Obama advisors and the President Elect himself have put the Indian diplomatic core in a tizzy spin. Russia India ship deal dead? Sign of the times & and relationship. Soon the tango with America will begin to bear dividends to the USA.

it is dangerous to be America’s enemy and catastrophic to be America’s friend. Henry Kissinger

The incoming US president, Barack Obama, has suggested in an interview that he might consider sending former president Bill Clinton as a special envoy to India and Pakistan on the Kashmir issue. He conceded that it was a diplomatic trap, yet wanted to devote serious diplomatic resources to send a special envoy. The purpose was to make the argument to us Indians that we are on the verge of becoming an economic superpower and it does not help us to keep the Kashmir issue burning. And, to ask Pakistanis why they would want to remain bogged down by Kashmir…. The president-elect could not have selected a worse moment to air these thoughts. Kashmir is due to go in for elections in the next few weeks. Such a suggestion will come in handy for secessionist elements…. timesofindia indiatimes. SUBVERSE: Lay off Kashmir. 7 Nov 2008, 0001 hrs IST, K Subrahmanyam

McCain,Obama Afghan bluster on Pakistan overtaken by events. Now the world is breathing down India’s neck on Kashmir.

In an interview in Time magazine in October, Obama said Kashmir was a place he wanted to “devote serious diplomatic resources to get a special envoy in there, to figure out a plausible approach”. He felt there was “a moment where potentially we could get” the attention of India and Pakistan.

Obama said he had spoken with Bill Clinton about this issue over lunch. During the campaign, Obama repeatedly spoke of a more active Kashmir policy. This was the first time he had spoken of an envoy.

The statement caused considerable concern both in New Delhi and among South Asian experts in the US. Prominent Indian-Americans close to the Obama campaign and various think tank members …

Indian officials are sanguine about any Kashmir move, noting both Bill Clinton and George W. Bush began their administrations with abortive peace efforts.

But the Kashmir kerfuffle raises a larger concern: is there anyone in the Obama administration who focusses on long-term India policy…Pramit Pal Chaudhuri, Hindustan Times.Washington, November 10, 2008

The appointment of President Bill Clinton as a special envoy on Kashmir is giving migraine headaches to New Delhi. How does India refuse President Clinton and risk the backlash in the Senate and the White House.

For another, the prospect that the U S might offer incentives on Kashmir is bound to encourage the Pakistan Army to harden its stance against the current peace process with India.

Finally, the sense that an Obama Administration will put Jammu & Kashmir on the front burner would give a fresh boost to militancy in Kashmir and complicate the current sensitive electoral process there. Kashmiri separatist lobbies in Washington have already embraced Obama’s remarks. (C. Raja Mohan is a Professor at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University and a Contributing Editor of The Indian Express.)

War drums in the Gulf, Hindu Kush & the Khyber Pass. A few weeks ago the RAW was running rampant through Paksitan backing the Indian agents. What a difference a few weeks makes.

“I remember the atmosphere. It was: Well, here we are on top of the world, and we have arrived at this peak to stay there forever. There is, of course, a thing called history, but history is something unpleasant that happens to other people. We are comfortably outside all of that I am sure.” Arnold Toynbee, recounting his feelings at the age of eight when he was watching a parade celebrating the 60th anniversary of Queen Victoria’s ascension to the British throne.

The establishment in Delhi has the “deer in the headlights look” absolutley paralyzed by the various diplomatic fiascos that it now faces.

… It will compel the Indian government to declare that no special envoy will be acceptable. It will be difficult for Bill Clinton, who is popular and has a lot of friends in India, to come to this country as a special envoy without being greeted by demonstrators with black flags. When President Clinton offered to mediate in the Kargil war, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee politely declined….. timesofindia indiatimes. SUBVERSE: Lay off Kashmir. 7 Nov 2008, 0001 hrs IST, K Subrahmanyam

ISI-CIA smoking the peace pipe? Can the tet a tet last? The Indian establishment is now dealing with the prospect that the Clinton players may have a prominent role in the Obama administration. Censured! Lieberman repudiated. Impact on US politics.

One of the problems that India may have to face at the start of the Obama administration is the likely return of many former officials tainted by the cultivation of jihadi forces, who are tolerant towards the Taliban and permissive of the China-Pakistan nuclear proliferation axis. While Obama himself may have a tough line towards the mixing of faith and politics, many of the traditional Democratic party ex-diplomats, ex-militarymen and ex-intelligence officials may not be able to shun the cronyism they have indulged in with their Pakistani Counterparts. timesofindia indiatimes. SUBVERSE: Lay off Kashmir. 7 Nov 2008, 0001 hrs IST, K Subrahmanyam

The list of Barack Obama advisors is long and impressive.

Barack Obama … First of all, he has been endorsed by Caroline Kennedy and Ted Kennedy who are both CFR members. John Kerry has also endorsed Obama and he is a CFR member as well as a member of Skull & Bones. Obama’s wife Michelle is on the Board of Directors for The Chicago Council on Global Affairs which was founded in 1922 as The Chicago Council on Foreign Relations. Zbigniew Brzezinski is Obama’s foreign affairs advisor and is a CFR member and co-counder of The Trilateral Commission, serving as Director from 1973-1976. Obama’s economic advisor is Austan Goolsbee who is a member of Skull & Bones, Class of 1991. Four other advisors are Senior Fellows with The Brookings Institute: Ivo Daalder, Philip Gordon, Susan Rice and Bruce Reidel. Freedom Swings

With Indias Afghan policy in shambles, the relationship with Russia in cold storage, and the one with Iran on the doldrums, many wonder what is going on.

India continues to defy the world by denying Kashmiris their inalienable right to determine their destiny … The atmosphere of tension in India-Pakistan relations has engendered instability and insecurity in South Asia. The urgency of the situation and the need to resolve the dispute as soon as possible cannot be over-emphasized … The world’s Muslims will always stand by the Kashmiris until they succeed in their struggle to attain the right to self-determination.” Teheran Times: The Black Day of Kashmir – 61 years of pain

Thus, a series of icebergs has been lately slicing through the hull of the Titanic that used to be the grand old India-Iran “strategic partnership”. A disaster was waiting to happen ever since India voted against Iran at the International Atomic Energy Agency three years ago following US President George W Bush’s entreaties with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. India seeks ‘velvet divorce’ from Iran By M K Bhadrakumar

The world economy on the rocks and with a new cold war back on, the US has realized that its hands are limited in its reach. Even a Hyper power has its limits. Kashmir has to be resolved.