Pakistan-India: Last week the Amir of the Jammat ud Dawah (JuD),Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, said in his end of Ramadan, Eid al Fitr message that was posted on Facebook that India will not be able to hold onto Kashmir any longer than America is present in Afghanistan.
He did not explain his meaning, but the threat to India is plain. The JuD is the front organization for the Lashkar-e-Taiba, which is one of the most extreme and dangerous Islamic terror groups.
Comment: The US has placed a $10 million bounty on Saeed for his role in masterminding the 26 November 2008 terrorist attacks and bombings in Mumbai, India. The UN considers him a terrorist, but Pakistan does not.
While the implied threat against India after US forces leave Afghanistan probably is bravado, it is a threat that must be taken seriously in light of the Mumbai attacks. This is the first statement by a terrorist leader that linked the US fight in Afghanistan with the security of India.
Through all the turmoil in Afghanistan and Pakistan since 2001, India has been steady. It is the only continuous democracy east of Israel and west of South Korea since its independence. It has reduced the Kashmir insurgency to a police problem and has not taken advantage of Pakistani internal troubles to cause even worse stress.
Nevertheless, India's leaders also are extraordinarily difficult for Americans to deal with. The Indians actually practice their variation of George Washington's advice to avoid foreign entanglements in that they are rigorously non-aligned. Just ask the Russians.
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